Still Looking Good
We got the results of Deb's latest round of tests today, including a
CAT scan, and everything still looks good. No evidence of recurrence.
We asked Dr. Lange about the lack of energy Deb sometimes complains of
-- like the rest of us don't -- and he regards it as a normal Gleevec
side effect. We're now more than two and a half years past surgery,
which is already somewhat longer than Gleevec's average effectiveness.
We are extremely grateful.
The attached picture is from the banks of the Rio Grande. (Deb is
wearing what she calls her "Witch of Lancre" hat.) As usual, we had
more than a week between Deb's tests and our appointment with Dr.
Lange, so we took a trip. (We've found in the past that neither of us
gets much done during that week, so vacation seems to be its best use.)
This time we went to Santa Fe, a city that we both liked very much. We
spent six days cruising art galleries, eating chiles, and wandering
through the hills behind St. John's College. Santa Fe is at 7,000 feet,
which gives it an unusually temperate climate for New Mexico but makes
the air thin. Highs were in the 60s every day we were there, which had
the locals marveling at the good weather for November. The lung that
collapsed during Deb's surgery in 2003 has never completely reflated,
though, so we had to take the hills slowly.
On the day I took the picture we drove up to Taos, going up the high
road through the mountains and then back to Santa Fe along the Rio
Grande gorge. The mountain road has signs indicating that it is a bike
route, and we wondered who would be crazy enough to climb these
mountains on a bike. Today we found out: Dr. Lange.
Recently Deb has been concerned about the long-term stress that Gleevec
puts on her liver, so she has been skipping the glass of wine she used
to have with dinner. Today we asked Dr. Lange about that. He looked at
the blood tests and instructed Deb to start drinking wine again. After
he left the room she broke into a spontaneous little happy-dance, which
I think is the best possible kind of exercise.
