3/5/13 Tuesday Morning Greetings

Dear family and friends,

Gabrielle here.  Well, this last week has gone pretty well!  I haven't been too sick and I'm up 3.5 pounds from my lowest, rib-showing "Hollywood starlet" weight!  Basically, on any day I'm not nauseous I'm eating as much as I can.  Then when I get my double chemo this Friday and am sick for three days, my body can sustain the three days of NOT eating!

I also have some extra good news to report.  That mystery pain on my ride side/flank area is GONE!  Hallelujah!  Another prayer answered.  Thanks SO much for praying. 

On the hair front, I am now doing strategic "comb-overs" to hide bald spots.  So pretty darn soon I will get a buzz-cut and get to start using my awesome hat/scarf collection. 

We are enjoying a great PBS detective series that takes place in England during WWII called Foyle's War.  We are on season two of six seasons.  My energy wanes by evening so having something fun to watch is a real treat. 

At the double chemo this Friday, the start of round three, they will check my CA125 tumor marker again.  As you recall, after round one it went from 142 to 32.  The doctor wants to see it get to 20 or under.  I am eager to see where it is after two rounds of chemo and pray it continues to fall!  I'm also eager to see what my hematacrit is this Friday to see how long the one pint of extra blood is lasting.  Before the blood transfusion I was at 26.  After, I was at 30.  Let's see what it is this Friday.  You know those baby pools where you guess the weight and height the newborn will be and on what day and time it will be born?  We should do the same with CA125 and hematacrit numbers! 

Lastly, yesterday, the beautiful sunny day the Lord made for us to enjoy here in Seattle, was a really fun day.  I am going to leave you with that teaser and let Daniel tell you about our day in his post later today.  What a great reminder that in battling cancer, as in all of life, there will be ordinary days, some really bad days, and some really amazing days.  Not every day in the life of a cancer patient is horrible, as Daniel's report will show you.  Thanks be to God for strength and peace to get through the bad days, for the routine and calm of the ordinary days, and for the immense joy to be found in the really great days like yesterday!  May you all have at least one GREAT day this week!

Love,
Gabrielle