Monday Evening.....Janaury 28th, 2008

Cycle 4...Day 6 of 21 Days....

Linda is having a bit less "bone pain" today....it should start tapering off....and she enters the "slide" into neutropenia (by day 10).....that's basically low blood counts for the lay person....time of weakness....infection prone....etc..... Linda still is worn out and has some bothersome heart burn...which comes and goes the past few months.....and she is a "trooper".

Dave got a good report from the internist today...he liked the way I was managing the hypertension....after looking at my blood pressure/heart rate records I keep.....it's been a lot about my commitment to diet, exercise, counseling, breathing, quiet music, etc, etc. The doctor even wants me to lower the medications to see the effect....if everything stays in control then I can use less meds..which I like. I just want to stay out of the 140's all the time (and absolutely no more 150's or 160's)(thankfully I've not seen any 190's or 200's since the beginning)......

Our plans: head to Florida in two weeks at the end of Linda's last cycle...to start the healing in earnest....then we return the 8th of April (so two months in the sun) and on the 9th she does a CT scan of the chest and abdomen...on the 10th the results are discussed with both the medical and radiologist oncologists....so we will know where things stand (for at least that period of time)...

We do plan on doing the Long Beach Grand Prix...the program this season will be the same basic program as last year with a few interesting twists here and there.....Because of the closeness of the Houston GP to Long Beach, Marilyn and John will cover that event....it also has so much walking involved, we didn't want to press our luck with Linda. We then will slowly pack the motorhome in preparation for a trip to Laguna Seca (Linda's favorite track).

Champ Car is great in their support (of the program and Linda's health issues) so it will be a good year for the fan program....

Tomorrow Linda meets with her Internist to discuss her blood pressure issues that proceeded the cancer....she wants to know how to manage things as the body starts getting back to normal from the chemo and radiation. I am visiting the dermatologist.

Dave