Peg had enough "oomph" last night to plant some winter flowers with Zoë, as long as she was sitting down. Swapped out the zinnias for pansies and put in red snapdragons around the grass. Can't remember the last time we were able to work out in the garden as a family, and what a beautiful time to do it-- magic hour just before sunset with the amber light hitting the upper canopy of the trees, leaves turning gold.Our family doc emailed Peg yesterday to tell her the CA-125 marker is now down to 6. The cancer is in remission and her numbers look good, but she's getting knocked down a bit by the chemo. One of the side effects of chemotherapy is neuropathy, which is numbness in her toes and the balls of her feet. She's got a bit of numbness and tingling in her fingertips as well.
Her weight is back up about where she wants it, and we've started to eat a more balanced diet again. But we have fond memories of horking down mass quantities of mashed 'taters, gravy and all the other yummies our friends brought us over the last four months to get her there.
Peg's last chemo, the seventh, is two weeks from tomorrow. Then she'll be monitored closely for a few months, then less frequently. After three or four years with no recurrence, the odds are in her favor that her future is cancer-free. Our friend Jon, who went through this 11 years ago with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, says that he looks back on it as a bad dream. We're looking forward to saying that down the road as well. For now, we're enjoying the flowers, and each other.
