St Croix River Road Ramblings

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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Margo has temporary treatment delay and Russ eats a watermelon


A mouse is making a jack-o-lantern in the sand garden
Today Margo was running a small temperature, and so they skipped her chemotherapy.  An x-ray showed a spot on her lungs which seemed to be pneumonia, so she is on antibiotics for 10 days to make sure it clears up before more chemo treatments.   She says she feels fine, her temperature is 99.9, where normal is 98.6, so barely a degree high.  Chemo knocks down your immune system, so treatments wait until things are all normal again.

The better news is that last Friday she had an early MRI after the first 3 treatments to see what was happening  The results looked good:   The main tumor is just a tiny bit smaller, the two other lumps are much smaller and almost gone, and nothing new is starting in the left breast or lymph nodes.  The "washout kinetics" have decreased. meaning I think. that the blood supply to the tumors is being cut off (the experimental drug does this)--also good. She also had a biopsy, but the results of that are not back yet.  This test is part of the research study and normally she wouldn't have an MRI and biopsy until the end of the first 12 weeks of treatment.

The Golden Rod is Yellow, 
 So nothing is growing larger, and some things shrinking.  Nice to see that things are on the right track all ready.  As soon as her temperature drops she will be back to chemo and hopefully continue getting rid of the cancer.

This weekend Margo's brother Larry and wife Judy are driving over from West Bend, WI for a quick visit. I am at the cabin for a few days and headed back for the weekend too.

The Corn is Turning Brown
Got the cabin roof patched this morning, the hot water heater element changed after it burned out when the bears broke the garden hose outside that drained my water system and let it overheat the empty tank; got the tire fixed on the Cub Cadet and drove it around the woods, mowed the trails, and had a couple ripe watermelons.  The sand garden has dried up so most of it has died back except some tomatoes and the melons. The pumpkins are mostly ripe; no squash, Mom's apples are wormy because I didn't spray them, and the corn fields are turning brown!
The trees in apple orchard, with fruit are bending down


Watermelons are ripe, but the vines have dried up mostly

The birds are eating their winter food early this year