Ruth Update #20

August 16, 2006

Dear Friends, Relatives, and Prayer Partners,

The good news is, there is no new cancer, and the lesion in my hip is smaller. The bad news is, it is still there. When I got that news, my hip started hurting again. So, the plan is to continue with chemotherapy for three more cycles, that is one every three weeks for nine weeks, starting tomorrow. Then, another PET scan and a bone scan, and we will re-evaluate again. Good thing I washed my wig last week.

Sorry to be all excited about my "last" chemotherapy treatment when it was not the last one after all. We at least know that we are going down the right path, we are just not to the goal yet. Dang. I wanted my hair back!

Thanks to Ann G., who went with me to the oncologist's office for moral support. Paul is out of town this week, though he offered to come home if the news was bad. Since his class finishes tomorrow, I told him not to bother. I think the boys and I will go out to Chuck E. Cheese's tonight and be silly. Paul will be home tomorrow evening.

Thanks also to the J family, who scored tickets to Peter, Paul & Mary at Wolftrap and shared them with us. I got to sit in the second row in the orchestra pit! I was one row from the footlights! It was wonderful! The guys were out in the far reaches of the lawn somewhere. Ah, well. Sorry about that. It was a wonderful concert, if you like PP&M, and we do. I had a scratchy throat by the end, as the audience is expected to sing along, and we did. Mary Travers' long, straight hair is now short and slightly wavy. She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004. Chemotherapy didn't work, but a bone marrow transplant did. They looked and sounded great, and their backup musicians were superb, as usual. They sang some songs we didn't know, too, but many members of the audience knew them, and we of course sang along on the choruses even of the new songs.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Get your mammograms. Do your self-exams.

Love,

Ruth