Getting ready for Market

Mary wants to go to Farmer's Market today and that is a good sign. Yesterday, we went to the bank and to Lunardi's grocery store and then I took her home and did the rest of the errands on my own. She was tired from the walk through Lunardi's--and she didn't even walk into the bank with me.

This recurring back pain appears to be in the muscles between the shoulder blades. I do give her back rubs just as she goes to bed and that seems to help her sleep. It is a concern, of course, that the pain recurs daily and doesn't seem to go away.

Mary's appetite is good. She dove in on the baby back ribs last night and is eating a variety of foods for each meal easily. She must keep food in her tummy to minimize acidic stomach and she has a menu of snack foods to help keep that problem at bay. Her body weight is absolutely stable, varying no more than 1 lb over they last several weeks so no bloating or other issues.

Tomorrow we are back at Stanford to see the Oncologist, Dr. Fisher. We hope to get answers to the back pain as well as the efficacy of further chemo given Mary's reaction to the first two treatments. Recall that all the prior literature searches have said that there is no meaningful impact on cholangiocarcinoma from chemotherapy.

On a final note, Mary turned on the TV to watch the Stanford football game yesterday. This may have been because my coworkers hail from schools with nicknames like Trojans, Bears, Ducks and Cardinal (definitely singular because it refers to the color, not the bird. Hey, it works for Tiger Woods, the Stanford dropout, on Sundays!). This football season, there has been a lot of email chatter about the Trojans nosediving this year. Given that USC fans have tattoos on precious body parts attesting to team loyalty, its extremely entertaining to watch their pain and agony--equivalent to the emotion shown while Stanley screams "Stella" in Streetcar Named Desire. While USC fans scream in epic pain, the Ducks were flying high--for a week. The Ducks ran into the Cardinal yesterday and the pecking order has been reset--again.


Time to get ready for market.