Tyler Loves Uncle Dylan

Tyler really gets a kick out of his uncle Dylan, who plays with him and reads to him. Tyler's favorite color is green. No wonder they have fun together.

Avastin #17

CA125 went down 10.6 pts to 101.4. That's always a good day. Mag down so got 4 grams (2 hours) but still got out of OPC by 3 pm. Called my physical therapist's office as I was leaving Balto to ask if they could fit me in sooner than my 7 pm appt. Was able to get in at 3:30 pm so went straight to PT for painful rotator cuff. Have been seeing PT and acupunturist; it's been helping preventing waking with pain in my left arm/shoulder.

I'll be in Cape Cod when my next blood draw was scheduled but Dr. Im said I could just cancel it. Yeah! Driving up with Alex, Tyler and Jenna (Megan flies up to Maine on Thursday) on Saturday. Will spend overnite with Alice & Don and kids in north Jersey before meeting Megan and the Kriskos at their home in Danvers Sunday night. Monday we all head to Cape Cod where the two families have rented a house near the water. I'll visit and fly back from Hyannis mid-week. I should get a baseball hat saying, "If you're a Kennedy, sit next to me."

Ticks galore

Nurse practioner Rachel Sweeney thought I should have Doxycycline for 21 days instead of the 14 the PA prescribed so gave me a script for 7 more days of antibiotic. Luckily Giant Pharmacy is providing antibiotics for free. Talking to neighbor Lorraine, it turns out her daughter and granddaughter both have had tick bites recently and needed varying days of Doxycycline. So check yourself whenever you've been outdoors to see that you don't have any "hitch hikers" on your body. Swelling and redness are lessening on my left foot.

A lady wren has made a nest in a small cardboard box which was laying open on its side on a supply shelf in my carport. She has nervoulsly flown away when I park my car each night so I moved the box to a higher shelf, hoping that would make her more comfortable. There were at least three eggs in the nest. How neat.

Ticked off

Thursday night the top of my left foot itched. Next day I wore mules to work. Saturday I noticed my #2 toe on my left foot was red and swollen. Got neosporin and sprayed it on several times. By Sunday when I went to Round Bay beach with my kids and grand kids, not only was the toe red and swollen, the top of my foot had what looked like a red rash. Megan and Dylan were insistent that I see a doctor immediately. Went to Righttime Medical and filled out forms to see a physicians assistant. He said it wasn't a tick bite that causes Lyme disease because wrong shape of rash. When he had me hop up on a table so he could inspect my toes, he said it WAS a tick. How can you be sure? I asked. He pointed to the sucker in between #2 and 3 toes. He had tenaciously held on despite my walking in sand and standing in river mud while playing with Tyler at Round Bay beach. After carefully removing the tick and sending it off to a lab, PA gave me 14-day supply of Doxyclycline 100mg (2/day) because my immune system is compromised. Have an appointment with my regular nurse pracitioner tomorrow morning to check it out; also e-mailed my oncology nurse to inform her. Luckily I'd gotten flea/tick preventer for dogs Saturday after they had been groomed on Friday. Hopefully, this will help keep ticks out of my bed in future.

Cancer numbers up but still on avastin

My CA125 numbers continue to climb (up 27.6 pts since 6/10 to 112.0). No longer in double digits. Crap. Cancerous node increased from 14mm x 11mm to 15mm x 12mm. Itsy bitsy growth is "not statisically significant." Dr. Im decided to continue Avastin for 3 more treatments, then order another CT scan. If numbers & node continue to grow, he will add carboplatin (chemo) to the mix. But probably not until October so I'll be wigless thru the summer months. Yeah!

Nothing much good on T.V. so have been reserving books at the library online and then reading a lot this summer. Pretty much lite fare except for Alice Roosevelt Longworth's bio which was thick hard cover and discussed more politics and less about her life than I would have liked. Work full-time and babysit grandkids one day each weekend.