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Maura had a great weekend and a very newsy doctor visit on Monday.
She hung out with her friends most of the weekend, going out as much as possible, knowing that next week she'd be feeling pretty lousy again. it was great to see her feeling so well and energetic.
On Monday, the doctor let us know that she was scheduled for chemo to start this Saturday. That's good because most of the bad days will be over by Thanksgiving.
Maura learned that the Heart Scan showed that her heart is in great shape, which means that she can continue to receive chemo. That's good news.
She also learned that her tumors--the ones that were once called "too numerous to count' are now probably countable. In fact, the doctor took a few minutes right then and there to start counting and he only came up with five. Just five. From "too numerous to count " to "count on one hand" in only six months.
He also said not to get worried about the marker tumors (the ones that are tracked from scan to scan--I think I made up that term, but it's a good term) not decreasing much in size this time. He said that as long as they are decreasing at all, that it is good, and that we should remember that a lot of the total tumor mass is dead tumor, not live tumor. He did add, however, that if they were to open her up, they would find more than five--the buggers hide.
That brought up another subject. We now understand that the ultimate goal is for the tumors to get to a point of containment where they are 100% resectable (removable, operable). So now we know what the goal is: surgery to get rid of the last traces of Toby's evil spawn. When we tell you that Maura is scheduled for surgery, that will be great news.