Post #62: Ready for Tomorrow

Greetings Everyone!

The days are passing so swiftly, it's hard to keep up with everything! But happy to be able to type up a good report today!

Anita's pattern now - not unusual for her even before she became ill - is to awake around 5:00 a.m. and to be up by 5:30! And that means dressed and ready for action. And "action" means Tristan the wonder dog! (For those of you who may have missed some earlier postings, Tristan is a four month old wire hair fox terrier that Anita & John brought (to their formerly quiet) home as the newest family member on July 15th.) Apparently, Anita and Tristan have reached an understanding: he doesn't do things on the carpet - or other naughties - and she doesn't have to get tough. Amazing what a quick wave in the air of a plastic fly swatter will do! But Anita has a problem now. She was trying to throw his favorite toy as far as she could in the yard, but managed to pitch it up on the roof! How does one explain this to the dog? We wish her luck!

Other than enjoying Tristan's many antics, she has been quite busy. She has made two trips to her office, has a real estate listing in the works (John is also a licensed agent and is helping her out), and she has been doing some exercises for the past three days. She is determined to firm up her arms and legs. As you all know, after being sedentary for such an extended period, muscles tend to get weak. So she gets up every day and tries to do as much as she can around the house. She has been eating pretty well with lots of fresh fruit and keeping up with her vitamins. She sounds cheerful and very positive.

She is very excited about getting the results of her contrast cat scans which were done last Friday. It is possible that the results will be available tomorrow but it is more likely that she will receive them this coming Friday. The cat scan was done in three parts, starting at her neck and going all the way down to her lower abdominal area and should reveal the extent to which tumors have receded and the existence of any new or increased growth areas. These scans will give a firm indication of whether she is headed toward remission or not.

Tomorrow Anita is scheduled for her fourth chemo-therapy session at 8:45 a.m. Her next (3rd) Rituxan treatment appointment is this coming Friday at 10:45 a.m. In the past week, as previously noted, she has had dizziness and some shortness of breath. In the past two days she has been feeling very tired and has also experienced some other discomfort that as of this morning has gone away. At this point therefore, we cannot assume that she is totally out of the woods, but her progress to date has been phenomenal and I believe totally due to the phenomena that is Anita. She has heard that most people who have received the diagnosis that she has received (Stage 4 Type 1 B-Cell Lymphoma) do not make it and that the difference between those who do and those who don't, aside from individual overall health and genetic differences, is the mental attitude of the person. And as we all know and have seen demonstrated she has an attitude and a life force that can't be beat! So on to remission!!!

Melissa