When It Rains, It Pours

You may be asking yourself, “Self, will Allisen please stop with the posts this week? She hasn’t posted in weeks and weeks, and now she won’t shut up!” The updates just keep pouring in, and also we have gotten a whole lot of rain, so literally it has been pouring here. 

Here’s Gwen and Friend Kristen running in the rain, but doesn’t Friend Kristen look jubilant anyway? (And they appear to be running in sync.) Photo cred: Lydia Lea

On Monday, two days post-5K, Gwen had her next round of scans. Today, Veteran’s day, Gwen, Justin, Mom, and I piled in to the doctor’s office and awaited the results. And I mean we really a-waited… for hours. Apparently Veteran’s day is a popular day for oncology visits.

Once again, the news was good! Scans were clear. We looked at side-by-side images from August and November. The technician’s report indicated that there seems to have been some things that had cleared up since August – signs that perhaps Gwen had a touch of pneumonia or bronchitis back in August? She had felt fine, and those spots were obviously not anything that stood out to the doctor or the CT technicians in August – just that things are more clear now.

Gwen talked about a couple of things with the doctor – like “chemo-brain” effect – that happens about once a month or so (which is basically trouble thinking about complex things more than usual) and it is likely that it is a side effect of the medications she is taking. Her MRI indicated that everything with her brain was good. She has had a couple of other minor issues that she will monitor and report if things seem to change, but nothing that is of concern to the doctors at this time.

And in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when Gwen asks questions:

Don’t you feel like you were there with us?

Gwen got the good news that at this point in her treatment, research indicates that it is fine to only have the Xgeva shot (for her bones) once every THREE months – she was having that one monthly. So, she got it today and is now good to go until February, which is when she will have her next scans as well.

At the end of the appointment, Dr. G ended with a “Merry Christmas! Now I have to go see sick patients; you are not one of them!”

And by the way, today it was sunny all day long!

See how sunny it was? And not a cloud in the sky!