Belated Happy New Year to all!

Hello everyone,
I took a two month break from chemo and all things related so it seems.

Christmas was very good - went to Chicago for severals days and spent time with Jim and Annabelle and Jim's girlfriend, Dina. Christmas Eve we spent at Dina's parents' home and enjoyed their traditional Italian fish/seafood dinner. Lobster for dinner is a pretty good tradition and was delicious. Annabelle who is 5 and in kindergarten was probably the most excited we have seen her on Christmas morning.

The only downside to our holiday was losing our lion kitty Chloe on December 22. That was really tough, but she had lived a good life and we have good memories and pictures.

The third week of January is our ski week in Big Sky, Montana, and this year was especially exciting. First, the airlines lost my big suitcase and our skiis and ski clothes. They delivered my suitcase about midnight, but still hadn't located our skiis and gear. We finally got them about 8:30 the next evening, but had lost that day of skiing. Second, we got up the next morning ready to ski only to find out the actual temperature was 23 degrees below zero and the lifts couldn't run until it warmed up to 15 below. The high we saw that day was minus 8, but we did get in a half day of skiing non-stop. The rest of the week gradually warmed to as high as 10 t0 15 degrees above zero. Snow conditions were outstanding and I didn't see a patch of ice all week. Our trip home included an overnight stay in Seattle and it was great. Neither of us had been to Seattle before.

Now we are back to reality. January 28, I started back on chemo - just Avastin and Alimta once every four weeks - probably for six months. It only took an hour and a half and didn't have any annoying side effects yet. That same day, I had the MRI follow-up to the Gamma knife I had in December. Unfortunately, several more spots are showing up in my brain and I am scheduled to start 14 treatments of Whole Brain Radiation tomorrow. It certainly isn't what I want to do, but the preparation was fascinating. I will probably have some other words for the actual treatments.

I will let you know how the WBR goes and continue to appreciate your good thoughts and prayers.
Margaret