More Good News

Is there a way to teach your dogs how to wipe their paws when they come in the door?

I have to say I’m getting sort of tired of this west-side weather, although it was nice to see the sun break through today. The constant rain has done a number on my floors with Sophie traipsing in and out with her giant muddy paws. I have permanent dirty paw prints from the doggy door in the basement, across the carpet and up the stairs. I think its time to put in a runner or something before she completely destroys my carpet. It’s not the highest quality carpet in the world, but I can’t afford to replace it right now, so it’s all it got! I think I might look into having it professionally cleaned and then purchasing runners that follow her path. The hard wood floors are a completely different beast, they require constant sweeping, but at least those monster paws of hers don’t cause permanent damage. Just continual dirt dirt dirt. It’s impossible to keep clean.

I saw Dr. Rado yesterday and we had a wonderful visit. I always enjoy seeing him; I just wish I was seeing him for personal rather than professional advice. There was a lot of good news yesterday…my platelets have doubled and while they are still not stellar, they are much better at 47. My white counts however have continued to drop and rather than being moderately neutropenic, I have become severely neutropenic. He believes they will rebound on their own, but I am going to the Tingstad and Rumble concert tonight, so he went ahead and prophylactically gave me a shot of neupogen to boost my white counts since I am going to be around people, elbow to elbow at the concert.

The really good news is that the drug that I didn’t make it into the clinical trial for is on the fast track for FDA approval. The clinical trials have gone so well that they are working to get the drug approved as soon as possible. Once approved, it will be the first drug specifically for triple negative breast cancer patients. I am really excited about this development, there is still so much to hope for!

The other good news is that we are not going to start the Xeloda this next round. He wants to try to make some changes managing the side effects to see if he can keep me from being so sick from the Ixempra before adding the Xeloda. So hopefully this next round, which starts Feb. 18th, will not put me in bed for a week. Hopefully the new plan will minimize the side effects. If so, then we will add in the Xeloda on the round that starts on March 11th.

I got to go see Houston today and he is out of jail in just over a week; his release date is Feb. 14th. I am struggling with whether or not to let him stay here until he can get into the housing program. He was going to stay with some friends of the family, but they have not confirmed him staying there, and I can’t bear the thought of him having no where to go. I wish I knew what to do to help him. I want to be there for him, but at the same time not do too much to where he cannot succeed on his own. I want to assist him without enabling him, and that is a very fine line. I’m praying and asking God to guide me to do the right thing, it’s so hard to know what the right thing is in this instance.

I am trusting in God, that is all I can do. Really, that’s all any of us can do.