In this week's episode...

Xavier says, "I love shoveling. More snow, please!"

Then, Tilly helps out.

And when the work is done...




And later still...Tilly discovers the glory of the Drumstick. "Thanks Uncle Donny!"

(We had a lovely snow day here. Hope you all are well too!)

4th dose of MDX -010

Everything went well for the fourth and final dose. No reactions, no vomiting. :)

Aimee will get a PET scan in 2 weeks, the doctors will compare these scans with the ones taken before this clinical trial, and then we'll meet with the doctor to discuss the effectiveness of the treatment. A couple of possibilities here:

1. Tumors have diminished-- our best possible result. This would mean that the MDX has been effective. And so she would probably continue on this regimen.
2. Tumors show no sign of growing or diminishing. This wouldn't necessarily mean a thing-- as the doctors say many times it takes the medicine an extra 4 weeks to show signs of working. If this is the case, we would wait another 4 weeks and check the progress.
3. Tumors have grown. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, the tumors grow first (due to inflammation), and then shrink. If this happens, then again we wait another 4 weeks and check Aimee's progress.
4. The cancer has spread inordinately or metastasized. This would show definitively that the medication has not worked, and so we'd immediately discuss the next option for treatment and begin it right away.

So, most probably, we will see the doctor in 2 weeks and then see him again in another 4, as Aimee hasn't noticed any change in her more palpable tumors nor discovered any new ones.

Some Pictures

Here are Tilly and Xavier...with sticker faces, a new-found hat, and new hair cut.

Baby Report

My sister Johanna and her husband Matt had their baby last week--a boy! Vincent Matthew. Mom and baby are doing great.
Pictures to follow...eventually.

Ash Day

Thank you everyone for checking up on us. We all are feeling much better; my dizziness is done and our colds (hurray!) finally seem to have run their course. So naturally, I have turned my attention to laundry. And in my ever-failing struggle to eradicate dirty laundry, I was trying to reach those tiny long lost socks between baby mattress and springs and guess what I found? Under the crib, at the bottom of the extra, extra sheet box, there was the box of winter hats! Three months into winter, four months after I started checking and rechecking the trunks in the basement and searching the backs of both of our closets, there it was. We've got it now! Hats, mittens, scarves, in every color! Don't worry, we each had at least one pair of hats and mittens all along, but next time you see us, even if it is in July, we'll have our best woolly hats on.
In other news, Tilly was very excited that it was "Ash Day" (as she insisted on calling it) and Xavier wanted to know if "Ash Easter" was coming soon. Only forty days, give or take a few, and then we'll be sporting our Easter finery, new patent leather shoes, freshly pressed dresses and suits...and our prettiest winter hats. Maybe by October, I'll have found the box with the Easter bonnets...