Enough With All the Lemonade

You know how the saying goes, “When life gives you lemons…”

I like lemonade, but I’ve had about as much as I care to have. A lot has happened since our last post, but each time I try to make a post we’re only a day or two away from another answer. Or, in some cases, it’s just been too stressful.

Let’s start with the first item. Karen was kicked off the clinical trial after her white blood cell count went down too low. That was disappointing of course, but we still hoped the short amount of treatment might have shown some type of positive results. Unfortunately, CT scans showed that her tumors have continued to grow.

Once again, there are too many unknowns. Top of the list is whether the tumors grew prior to the treatment, and the treatment either slowed down the growth, or even reduced the tumors. We simply can’t know. Karen’s doc is arguing that case to other immunotherapy drug companies right now. It’s his opinion that the immunotherapy drug stabilized the cancer. The growth is nominal, so he may be justified arguing that. Just like everybody that knows Karen, he’s taking things personally. He, and everybody else up at the Clinic, are definitely fighting for her.

Karen is such a wonderful person that it’s tough for people to resist loving her. Hell, the clinical trial nursing staff brought her flowers, a really neat owl bag, and even made her a cake! All the staff on the floor gathered up in their conference room with just Karen and me to partake in the cake-sharing.

The doc is looking for other trials, and also for an opportunity to treat Karen with an immunotherapy drug off-trial. He does have a couple more conventional treatments he’d like to try if those don’t pan out.

The medical obstacles are bad enough, but there has also been some family drama going on concurrently adding to the mix. Plus, maintenance in and around the house is getting to be a bit much to manage, and our brand new geothermal system went out. Yes, that squeal I asked the contractor about, the one that was no big deal, finally got bad enough that it started setting off alarms and turning itself off. Go figure!

The up side to all that is that Karen was on an Immunotherapy drug, and is still in one piece, so this should allow her to go onto another drug without too much push-back. As far as the house goes, we are on the schedule for somebody to help with a few things, so that’s a bright point. The landscaping company just planted Karen’s small wildflower field (that can be viewed from the kitchen and breakfast nook), and our library shelves are up and have books in them (finishing touches being completed by the trim carpenter soon). Oh yeah, and the squeal in the furnace may finally get fixed!

See, we can do something with those lemons! Maybe I’ll squeeze some over the ribs I’m grilling too. But, please, no more!