Back in Bellingham

We are finally home - and Joanne is in our wonderful tempur-pedic bed. She received two units of blood yesterday and felt much stronger afterwards. Her temperature never rose above the "must have antibiotics" level, so we dodged that bullet.

We had several conferences with the new oncologist and our surgeon yesterday. They painted a very clear, and sometimes a bit frightening, picture of the chemotherapy road ahead. We have the first session a week from today, the 17th, in Seattle. They are definitely raising the bar in terms of chemo, with both IV and intraperitoneal chemo and a new drug. We are going ahead with the first session to see how Joanne tolerates it. She is in charge, and if the side-effects are too bad, she can cancel future treatments. I believe she will do fine - she is strong, resilient, and heals well. There are only three more cycles - six treatments total. We're starting to see the old proverbial light at the end of you know what.

Speaking of healing, even though this surgery was more extensive (larger incision, hysterectomy, etc.) Joanne is recovering much faster. She is actually much healthier this go-round, even after four cycles of chemo! We expect the healing to continue.