Sue has just finished her 15 daily treatments of proton beam radiation in Philadelphia. On the last day, Sue, as is custom with all patients there, rang the bell to celebrate the finish of the three weeks of treatments. Sue was able to maintain a full time work schedule, thanks to being allowed to telecommute. Only now are the effects of the radiation starting with being tired. Although that may also be in part from a cold that Sue got. And the steroid treatments have been taking their toll, but that will be ending soon.
We stayed at a very extended stay hotel near the hospital. Thanks to our family for making this much less costly and difficult. We had several friends come to visit us in Philly. And we did get out a couple times including an amazing dinner at Sue’s cousin’s restaurant in Philly called Sampan (fusion asian, named after his grandfather, a butcher). The hotel was comfortable and conveniently took us by shuttle every day to the hospital. And we dodged the massive snow that hit further north and east and would have made getting into the hospital much, much tougher. Whew!
We are now going to wait for a month or so to see how effective the treatments were. Fortunately, Sue is taking Iclusig and getting Rituxan (the immunotherapy drug) which are intended to also keep the leukemia in check systemically whereas the radiation was tightly focused. Sue has endured now a couple months of being inpatient or daily outpatient at hospitals. We are looking forward to a more normal and schedule back at the ranch. And may be we can get some snow there.
Thanks so much for the news! Everything sounds really positive, and I'll bet you'll be really happy to be home for a while. Will you be in W.Va? Anyway, much love and prayers.
Posted by: Ruth Skjerseth | January 30, 2015 at 11:31 PM