coughing

Dear hearts, Val is coughing. Lately she coughs in fits and starts throughout the day, although mostly she sleeps well. Some days she coughs with every sentence she utters, her breath hitching on words as she tries to squelch the impulse. There is a faint, asthmatic wheeze behind her words. Continue Reading

we continue

Good news: Val’s most recent scan results (scan was last Friday, results shared Tuesday) showed something approximating stability. We had the scan done too early in the treatment cycle to corroborate with the study protocols, so they’ll do another scan at the end of this cycle in a couple weeks. Continue Reading

Also, I like this poem.

Meditation at Five Islands There is no help for it after all, nothing to keep one’s unlived lives from dragging their heavy chains along the bottom of the sea, full fathom five and so forth. The heart wants what it wants, which is everything. The brine air and the hundred-year Continue Reading

honeycrisp

Dears, Today we went in for Val’s treatment and to meet with the oncologist. I’ve been worried because it seems to me that Val’s condition — especially her breathing and energy — has worsened rapidly in the last month. She’s been wheezing audibly; taking shallow breaths to avoid coughing;and her Continue Reading

port is in

Just a quick note to say that Val’s port implantation surgery today went well. She’s groggy tonight and on pain meds, but she can take the dressings off in a couple days and we anticipate the port will be much less of an encumbrance than the PICC line. She’s bummed Continue Reading

port

Hello dears, They took Val’s PICC line out last week. Tomorrow she will have a port surgically implanted instead. Next week she’ll begin her second three-week cycle of Navelbine. At the end of those three weeks she’ll have a CT scan, and around then we should also get results from Continue Reading