4.13.2006

Can cool parents be any hotter? Posted by Picasa

4.06.2006

New School Year

L skipped and danced all the way to school for his entrance ceremony today and sang along very loudly with the second graders when they sang their welcome song because he knew and liked the song. The teachers got a kick out of the extra voice competing enthusiastically with the second graders. The school mark has been sewn on to the yellow hat the first graders wear to and from school and we've written his name on every item he'll be taking to school in his black school backpack tomorrow. He volunteered to take an early bath, brushed his teeth without being asked to and set out his clothes for tomorrow. Now I need to find a handkerchief (the schools don't have paper towels or air dryers so the kids use their own handkerchieves to dry their hands after washing) that isn't flowery and pink for his pocket...why do we have a drawer full of Hello Kitty handkerchiefs and only a single dinosaur handkerchief?

Tomorrow J has her jr. high school debut so I can wear the same outfit again. She'll wear her uniform. I doubt that she'll skip and dance but she does seem a little excited. Time to get some lights out before any second winds hit and the kids never get to sleep.

4.05.2006

New Chemo

The CEF part of my chemo regimen finished 3 weeks ago and I went yesterday for the first of 8 Docetaxel treatments which will be on a 2 week cycle.

I had to wait an hour or so while the morning blood test was processed and then my doctor called me in to discuss the results as well as the results from last Friday's CT scan. The chest x-ray they took just before the scan didn't show anything unusual but he did find a suspicious spot on/in my lower right lung which warrants observation (it's about 1cm) and another "abnormality which is probably nothing" (his words translated into English) on/in the left lung. I'll have last spring's CT scan results from another clinic sent to him for comparing (but I think something would have been said about any abnormalities back then...). I'll have anoth CT scan in 16 or 18 weeks after the chemo is finished.

I asked if it could be pneumonia or other virus symptoms (although I feel fine) and, for the left lung, a reaction to the radiation treatments, but he told me no (I figured the left spot was lower down than the radiated area, but who knows?) so I'm just waiting and hoping that if it is metastasis, the remaining chemo will pulverize it all and send it on its way.

The good news is that the lymph nodes all looked great after radiation and half of my chemo treatments.

I also got to see a bunch of friends from the Chofu English Playgroup who were having a picnic under the cherry blossoms in the park near my house when I got back from the hospital early yesterday afternoon. They all gave me my month's worth of hugs and well wishes.