After nearly 3 months of constant care, I got to watch as Bill jumped into our SUV and drove off to a men’s retreat in Estes Park for the whole weekend. I was invited to come along to act as nurse but his eyes and stamina have been steadily getting better and better during this last month and he wanted to do it all by himself. I felt such bittersweet relief that we had made it to this point.
Last week we went for a follow up MRI to see if the fourteen days of whole brain radiation treatments were successful in stopping the growth of the tumor that was left in his brain after surgery. We sat in the surgeon’s office anxiously awaiting the results. As the good Dr.Vollmer looked at the images on the computer monitor, he did a double take as he looked at the screen, then brought up the original MRI to check what he was seeing. Sure enough the small (pea-sized) tumor was gone—no visible trace left—and the shadows of the larger (egg-sized) tumor that had been removed were virtually non-existent. With restrained optimism he expressed his pleasure with the results and said that we will do a follow-up MRI in three months.
Now, two more cycles of chemo and the lung lesion (unwanted guest) will be in the cosmic dump as well. The prayers and love from all our friends are doing the job. The chemo makes Bill’s mouth taste like he’s been sucking on a penny. His appetite is one-half of what it was and that one-half is tinged with nausea, so we’ve been on a nostalgia recipe kick. How about some meatloaf with mashed potatoes, pork steak with corn, tuna casserole with potato chips, and root beer floats? Good grief—it’s like being transported back to our childhoods in the fifties!
