Thursday the 30th was Sandy's last day of chemo ... for now. After we finished, which was around 1 o'clock, we drove to one of Sandy's favorite places in all of Chicago, Ghirardelli's Chocolate Shop, where she got her favorite, a chocolate soda. Then we went to Sam's Club to stock up on basic supplies, then home.There was one final thing to do on Sandy's last chemo day:
This morning at 7:10, I found Sandy kneeling on the kitchen floor scrubbing grout. She had already washed two loads of laundry. Like every preceding day-after-chemo, her cheeks were flushed red: 
Sandy got a call yesterday from the nurse at UCMC telling her that she could go to chemo tomorrow. This will be her last chemo unless she ultimately decides to enter a trial at UCMC that lasts a year. If she does, we'll be going there every month for a year. She would be given either 1) xyotax or 2) a reduced dose of the paclitaxel that she's been taking or 3) no chemicals but monthly visits with her oncologist.
Sandy hasn't decided for certain if she'll enter the trial. The thought of going through 12 more visits to UCMC over the next year is too much to think about right now.
Meanwhile, Zoey next door turned 10 today. She and friend Jenna came to the house yesterday to give us an invitation to her party. While here, we talked about ... of all things ... computers. Jenna's dad is a Mac user and I'm a PC user. The girls decided they would make up a song about me and PC's. They came back within an hour to sing, "Chuck, The Microsoft Man."
Here it is:
Sandy got a call from her UCMC nurse Connie the other day. Connie told her that her platelets are too low for her to undergo chemotherapy this Thursday, so it will be put off for a week. She also learned that her CA-125 "score" is now 9, well below the 35-and-above numbers that might indicate the presence of cancer. Things are looking up!
Yesterday afternoon the weather was perfect for kids, so we had a swarm of them at the house. Here are a few:
Sandy talking to Lexi, with Emma, Luke, Zoey and Maddie. 
Maddie, Zoey, Lexi 
Gerrit and aunt Zoey
Gerrit, Zoey, Maddie, Lexi and ... Luke with a Fizzie.
Gerrit, Zoey, Lexi
Luke, hogging the frame
Zoey loves Gerrit
Luke, taking a break from golf (Bandit in background)
Emma (back) with Gerrit, Zoey, Maddie and Lexi 
Sandy's been feeling well lately. Her platelets are low, however, so there's a question as to whether she'll be able to have chemo next Thursday. Hematology results taken this coming Tuesday will tell the story.
Yesterday we went to the birthday party of Gerrit, grandson of the folks next door. He turns 3 on Monday. I regret that I don't have pictures of the event because it's hard to believe how much stuff he got from everyone who showed up. More than that, the expression on his face when he knew everyone was going to sing Happy Birthday to him and that he could blow out the candles on his cake was the definition of happy.
Here's Ava with Gerrit on July 4th at Gerrit's grandpa's house:
and here's Ava with friend Zoey (A.K.A. Gerrit's aunt):
After we left Gerrit's party, we went to a party for a neighbor across the street, Jeff. While there, Sandy met a woman who had once had ovarian cancer and lived to tell about it. She's been cancer-free for 17 years. They talked at length and I know Sandy came away with a greater hope than she's felt for a long time. It was a real blessing that she met this woman.
Sandy and I went blueberry picking yesterday. You gotta dress for it.
We got there as they opened at 8. Before you can start collecting blueberries, you need to gather along the fence so that you can . . . 
. . . get a ride out to the bushes.
Here's a bunch of pickers in the highbush country. 
Here's another. 
Once we checked out . . .
. . . we found out we had picked 22 pounds!
I picked something like 0.2 pounds more than Sandy, which surprised me because I thought she had more than I did. Or maybe she switched pails when I wasn't looking to make me feel good.Just a note about the blueberries. Some of the bushes had berries with white spots on them. I found out from one of the owners at Tammen Treeberry Farm that the white stuff is an insecticide called Imidan. It washes off easily. What you're supposed to do to get blueberries ready for freezing is to very gently wash them to get the insecticide off, dry them on a paper towel, spread them out on a cookie sheet, put them in the freezer, and when they're frozen, put them in containers or bags to freeze thoroughly.Oh, yeah, we're gonna do that with 22 pounds of blueberries! I put them in quart freezer bags, then into the freezer. We'll wash 'em as we use 'em.
We went to lunch with our friend Ruth in Momence, then home.
As we got out of our van, Sandy noticed that her Chevy Tracker had a flat tire!
We sat down, too tired to deal with it right then. But . . .
As fatigued as we were, I jacked up her Tracker and put on the spare. We drove the flat to our friendly repairmen at Balthun's in Kankakee. They repaired it for only $8, we returned home, put the tire back on her Tracker and were good to go.
We sat back down to relax, but then Sandy's restless legs started acting up, so I pumped air into our bike tires and off we went for a short bike ride. That helped her relax and then the day was over.It was a long day and a good one.
Sandy was #%&@ years old yesterday. She didn't want a party, so she and I had a quiet day together and that's what she wanted. We went to the movie Public Enemies, came home to make root beer floats, she lounged on the patio reading a murder mystery, then we went to her favorite restaurant for dinner, Lone Star.
She had neuropathy in her feet (translation: burning soles, as if walking on hot coals) but still managed to enjoy the things we did and the time we spent together.
Today she went to see her mother in her assisted-living facility in the town of Watseka (30 miles SSE of our house).
Sandy feels fatigued much of the time. The last time she felt this way her red blood count was down. Whether it's low now we don't know, because we don't have her most recent hematology report. A June 30th report indicated that her red blood count was at the bottom of normal limits.
Earlier, when her RBC was well below normal and she was fatigued, she got a <blood transfusion>. Although she considers a blood transfusion to be "creepy," it made her feel better a couple days afterward, so if she needs another one she'll go for it.
Sandy is returning to "normal," now that the weekend has come and gone. The weekend following chemo are typically the worst days of chemo's 3-week cycle.
On this weekend we were blessed to have Scot and Heidi and the girls as guests. They were on their way from Atlanta, GA to St. Paul, MN. Scot passed his Aircraft Commander training with flying colors (if you will) and is now officially a pilot-in-command (civilian term) of a C130. We're very proud of him! Sandy was in some pain and was very tired over the weekend, but coped well. On the 4th it rained all day. Not good. The neighborhood kids wanted to play outside, but couldn't.
Finally, an hour or so before sunset, the rain stopped and the sky brightened with a rainbow. The kids came out from everywhere. We lit sparklers and other fireworks and the kids ran all over the place in smoke. It looked like this: 
and this: 
Ava had a great time with her friends Lexi and Zoey. Here, she gets a big hug from Zoey. 
We also enjoyed watching Reese grow before our eyes.
Finally, when we all went to dinner, our little Ava occasionally acted less like a big sister to Reese than like "The Exor-sister":
We were sorry to see them go, but at the same time Sandy needed rest and she got it on Sunday.
