A Couple of Extras

I had the greatest time on Wednesday night. You see Faith is going to be Elizabeth Blackwell (the 1st woman doctor) in the Wax Museum on Wednesday night and Thursday morning at school. It is a great project that the 5th graders do at their school. Faith has to dress up to look like Elizabeth Blackwell and make a scene 3'x3' for the Museum. She will stand still for 20 minutes at a time while parents and students walk through the Museum. Fun stuff!!! So, back to my great time on Wednesday night - I decided to sew her costume and I had a marvelous time getting it cut out and prepared to sew. I had forgotten how satisfying sewing it. I absolutely LOVE it!!! I am making her a full skirt and a lab coat. I am now about halfway done and look forward to spending the next few days on them!

On Thursday night I had a great time with some of my church friends. Eight of us moms in the ward got together for a night of dinner (which I missed because of the Ancestor Dinner) and visiting. The visiting was great!! So nice to hang out with friends and not have to worry about what your kids are getting into or breaking up arguments!!

My Tuesday doctor's appointment went well. The latest scans show no growth - Dr. Cen called it "stable." That is really good news considering that I have had 9 weeks off of chemo. My blood levels are still a little low and that is concerning. Dr. Cen decided not to put off treatment any longer - but to instead give me a 50% dose of only one of the med and completely stop the other. So now I only take Etoposide and only 1/2 the dose - which makes my chemo now only 2 days a week and only 3 hours the first day and 1 hour the second. NICE!! The side effects should be considerable less - so we shall see. So far, so good. The biggest reason for stopping my Carboplatin is the neuropathy. It is awful. My hands and feet feel like they are asleep and tingle if anything touches them. My feet also feel swollen and numb and my balance isn't so good. I have fallen a few times, but never hit the floor - I am pretty good at catching myself. I am trying these socks now that are supposed to help with my feet and so far they seem to be helping - but I'm not sure if it is psychological or really helping. I guess time will tell. I hope the socks work - first because they are very expensive ($40 a pair) and second, it would sure be nice to not have my feet hurt!

All in all, things are going well. We bought David's books for school today and classes start on Monday. His schedule will be full - 5 classes, 15 units. He goes 5 days a week and we will miss having him around here, but I'm sure he will enjoy his semester. I have rediscovered my love of sewing and I hope to do more of it over the next few weeks. Other than that, we are just following the routine. I hope you are all doing well. Please know how much I appreciate your love and prayers, your thoughts and kind words - they totally keep me going, give me hope and make me feel great!! Having friends is a blessing that I have in great abundance! Thank you!!