Thursday...December 18th...2008

Where do I start..today being "medical day".....

First, I was able to practice my old ski patrol skills again, being the designee to clean, medicate and rebandage Mrs. Wood. I think I did a pretty good job. It looks to me like the doctor did a great job...although the cuts are 2 and 1/2 inches and 3/4 inch, the suturing was very good....only two small spots of any size. We clean and rebandage the wound every day and she gets the sutures out on the 24th.

I got my sutures out today..I maximized my wound...there were only two sutures...not three! The results of the biopsy are not back yet, as for whatever reason, they were sent to a different lab than Linda's.

Off we then went to the medical oncologist...to his new office complex....what a place..(but not neat enough to go through chemo again!). He examined the Xrays and all and told Linda the left lung was exhibiting a "consolidation"...ie collapsing in part..due to the impact of the radiation. He reminded her she has had massive amounts of radiation. He was unable to say absolutely that she had no cancer in the lung but he said that the lung should be the most cancer free area in her body due to the radiation. He said he has seen hundreds of Xrays just like hers and he says they always seem to be the impacts of the radiation. He said he could do a scan but was inclined not to (unless Linda wanted one). He wanted to wait until April, when we return from Florida...the net results are the same.....no loss for waiting.

We agreed to wait unless the radiation oncologist wanted to do something different....in which the two of the oncologists would "arm wrestle" and have a recommendation.

Off to Costco we went for a delicious lunch of soft ice cream, which Mrs. Wood slipped between her swollen lips.

We then met with the radiation oncologist....short version...he agreed with the medical oncologist...he saw nothing to worry about...he didn't want to see her until August.

What does this all mean....most likely cancer will not show up in the lung anyway....it most likely will show somewhere else in the body if it shows up....metastasizing is the term used....but there is no evidence of any of this. We plan on spending the next 4 months living our lives in gratitude of each day we have....we will take some exotic trips...etc..etc.

Thanks to all of you for your positive energy which was very helpful in getting us to this point. Keep it coming.....we are grateful....very grateful. When you visit the BLOG, please leave a short "atta girl" so Linda knwos you are there...it is easy to do ..follow the instructions on top of the page.

Although it snowed all day today, two days ago it was beautiful and cold...I leave you with some pictures of our "winter wonderland". these are the "Three Sisters"..."South"...Middle" and "North"...or as we prefer..."Faith", Hope" and "Charity".....enjoy!

Dave