sandr042

Brain cancer is... ...ready for tomorrow. Above we anticipate our typical epic lunch at Napa Valley Grille. It did not disappoint. Our Tiverton room is new to us: first floor, interior patio view. Let’s go (Brain cancer) Defense! Defense let’s go!

Brain cancer is...  ...studying new blood test results.  And whatnot. Darrell is right more than 50% of the time.   At one time, those might have been hard words for me to say.  Now they are easy, and today is one of those days that Darrell is right again .  Darrell and I had a playful word fight when he introduced his new favorite word, whatnot , in January.  ( Click here if you'd like the play-by-play .)  I didn't think the word would be very useful.  Today is the fourth post in which we're using "whatnot."  Right again, Big D. Above you see that the results of yesterday's additional blood tests are rolling in.  When we look up the reference ranges, Darrell's scores all appear to be in the normal range.  Sometimes they are low normal, sometimes high normal, but always within range.  We don't yet have Dr. Park's evaluation of the results. And Whatnot. We had a great Saturday at home.  We accomplished a lot.  And we f...

Brain cancer is... ...entering a whole new ballgame. First:   Shout out to Andi's brave husband, Darrell, who has (above) learned to sit patiently during the wait for Dr. Park.  (This is in contrast to earlier days. C lick here for the post of Dr. Park wait pain. )  About one minute before Andi took the above photo, Darrell said, "The wait is worth it."  That's cool. Second:   Today Dr. Park affirmed that Darrell's brain doesn't seem to be morphing in any scary way.  Yay!   Third:  A Whole New Ballgame:   Today Dr. Park did see the same "low" blood counts that Darrell and Andi have reported earlier ( as in here ).  Dr. Park decided to do additional testing (urine and blood) today.  Why?  Because maybe Big D's blood counts could perhaps be rising faster than they are.   Dr. Park exclaimed that Darrell is now entering the "long-term survival" territory.  Now we enter a whole new ballgame.  (To ourselves: ...

Brain cancer is... ...at home in Fullerton. Thursdays always start early, as sleep is hard to come by on teaching days.  After Darrell helped with Block 4 set up, after Block 4 rocked it, and after Darrell helped with Block 4 tear down, we headed to lunch at Fullerton Brewing Company (FBC, formerly Stadium Tavern) for lunch with a cool breeze and live guitar. Above is an image of Darrell in one of his favorite locations: on the patio at FBC It took a while for Andi's brain to stop rattling (thanks for your patience, Darrell), but when it did, we shared stories set in what feels like our home town, Fullerton. The story about this restaurant?  We started hanging out on this patio when our kids were teens, going through confirmation classes at our United Methodist Church.  The minister walked by and commented on our wine selection.  Oops. We told other home town stories today too.  For instance, my husband Darrell is the only person I can state affirmatively has b...

Brain cancer is... ...satisfied with a day at home. We feel recovered from the tumult that came with the scan yesterday.  Oh, did we mention the scan suggests that Darrell's cancer is stable? No findings for new or recurrent disease? Yes, we know we mentioned it.  But it's worth a second mention, right?  We see Dr. Park Friday for his confirmation and Dr. Cloughesy on Monday for the final word. Today was a home work day.  We got lots done.  We were glad to be at home because: Magic Porch!  Barb brought homemade pumpkin cream cheese  muffins.  Delicious!  And a dinosaur plate? It just doesn't get any better. Also we were glad to be home for another Skelly sighting:  He's kind of creepy, but at least he's a loyal Packer Backer, even after last week's fiasco. Thanks for seeing us through a tough day yesterday, Friends!

Brain cancer is... Second Diet Mountain Dew (DMD) of the Morning, Post Scan, after 17 Hours of DMD Abstinence ...well caffeinated, and it is... ...hairy. We pushed the array change an extra day, knowing we'd need to remove arrays for the scan today.  There is so much ponytail potential here! Dear Team D., Today's MRI scan went very well . The medical team was on time, fascinated by Optune, and efficient.  It was perfect.  After arriving at 7:20 am, we were out, cd in hand, by 8:30. Yesterday afternoon and last night?  Not so much " very well ." What Darrell and Andi learned last night when we hit the sack early is...    ...Abstaining from Diet Mountain Dew at 4:30 p.m. isn't early enough.    ...Maybe wine would have been a good idea.    ...Don't start reading a new book at bedtime, pre-scan,    ...and if you do start reading a new book, don't let it be this one: Just Mercy .     ...But if you don't listen to ou...

Brain cancer is... ...32 months old today. That's two years, eight months since our drive down the mountain to the Emergency Department.  That's amazing. We celebrated by starting the day at the park. We discovered it took more than 100 minutes to reach 11,000 steps.  One hundred minutes is about 30 minutes more than the time it takes for Darrell's feet to hurt. Sore feet?  What a great problem to have!     Darrell's MRI is scheduled for 8 a.m. tomorrow.  He has some scanxiety , mostly nervous that all the pieces will come together so that the scan happens on schedule.  Mostly but not entirely.  Thanks for your good thoughts. And thanks for staying on the team for the next months too.  You're the best, Team D.