November 2, 2009

Monday, November 2, 2009

You know, the name of this blog is "Lynn's Memorable Spring" - well, I'd guess that no one could imagine that we would be looking at the first part of November at this point. Quite a trip from early spring to late Autumn. The leaves that were just busting out on the trees when this thing started are now being raked up by my 8 year-old...and we're still not done.

Things are going pretty well, however, bearing in mind that we are talking stage four lymphoma. The confusion Lynn got from the first round was definitely not repeated in round 2...no doubt that the oncologist figured out what to do to handle that issue. Although that cuts way back on funny stories we can tell about her, the overall situation has definitely improved. And, Lynn is feeling quite good. Her recovery from the heart surgery had been pretty much on hold until a few months ago. Now, since the lymphoma cells are getting blasted by the chemotherapy and do not have the chance to mess with her, she is seeing some real recovery. No, not quite ready for three games of sand volley-ball, but definitely getting better...well, maybe ready for the BEERS involved in three games of volleyball, now that I think about it. Dr. Blair wants to check out how she is doing in a few weeks. He wants her to have a cat scan to see if the lymphoma is being reduced as much as it appears. I do not know for sure, but I suspect that, the better the cat scan turns out, the better chance she has of having fewer rounds of chemo. The original goal was to have 8 rounds. That puts her wrapping things up March 1st to March 4th. If they can cut it back to 6, we'll be done around January.

We have been getting all kinds of help from our friends and neighbors. Just about every other day, we get someone swinging by and dropping off a meal for us. From our experiences, we can tell two things: 1. we have a lot of really wonderful, caring friends, and 2. we have a lot of wonderful caring friends that REALLY know how to cook. The downside of this is the added expense that will now be incurred as I gorge myself on all the great food, and then have to start shopping at the "Big and Tall" Mens clothing store to get new pants. (Yes, maybe there is a stock tip there!) Seriously, it is really great to have this kind of help. There is a lot of inherent, underlying stress involved in the whole lymphoma situation. And, often times, not having to plan out and prepare something as simple as a meal really takes the pressure off, and makes things so much easier at the end of the day. Frankly, if it wasn't for all the great food we have been getting, I swear that I would have been feeding the kids a steady diet of Ramen Noodles and Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee by now. Now, that would probably not be an issue for THEM, but I would have felt terribly guilty.