Margo's Cancer gone?

Margo is recovering from chemo! Three weeks after the last chemo, her mouth sores are mostly gone, her appetite is back, and she is starting to feel like doing something other than sleeping!    She can walk around some, but gets tired quickly, so we are gradually increasing the walking at Mayo and shopping.   Her immune system has bounced back and is producing all the right stuff to keep her healthy.

Her ultrasound and MRI scan results are in and everything has "resolved." That means, that there are no lymph node nor breast cancer signs seen in the images at all! From many small and one large tumor, they have disappeared from imaging! Quite wonderful.

However, that does not mean treatment stops.  Surgery is March 11th and is for removal of the left breast and some nearby lymphnodes and then radiation for 36 days in April and May.  The surgery and radiation are to make absolutely sure that the cancer areas and cells are completely gone.  

For two weeks or so, Margo is having daily left arm/hand treatments for swelling of not quite determined yet cause.  This includes wrappings and bandages to try to squish the extra fluid out through the lymph system.   I redo two wrappings per day.   I think I am pretty good at it--probably would qualify to work in an Egyptian mummy factory.  

The doctor gave me a do-it-yourself stitch removal kit--a sealed package of scissors, tweezers and band aides so that next week, 10 days after Margo's tissue biopsies (one on each arm to see if MRI fluid chemicals were present) I can remove her stitches here at home.   I plan to film the process and post it here.  Quite wonderful how more things can be done at home.  I figure if this goes OK, I might take on doing it for the neighbors too.  She only has 3 stitches, two on the left and on on the right where a biopsy punch was used to pull out a chunk of skin and tissue.  Haven't gotten the results back yet.  

With surgery on March 11, looks like we will not be able to tap the maples in WI this year.  Last year my new knee got put in on March 12th and we skipped what turned to be a very poor season.  Nephew Bryce tapped our trees and used our equipment but instead of getting an expected 50 gallons of syrup with 200 buckets, got only 8 gallons.  Maybe he will try it again this year.   

Planted 6 pots of refrigerator forced tulip, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs this weekend.  Bought them cheap at Menard's beginning of Nov, ran them through 12 weeks of cool cycle and they should be up and bloom in a month or so. Fun way to have some spring color.  Another 36 bulbs to plant in a few weeks.  

 Didn't get up to Cushing today for Ed Wilson's funeral.  Scott is down with a cold or maybe the flu, so couldn't get him to substitute to drive Margo in to Mayo for the daily arm squeeze. Ed won't mind, but I did want to visit with my Cushing friends.