Deb’s Update: January 31, 2007 12:30 PM PST

Hi all,

I wanted to give you an update since today is a great day! Yesterday was my last chemo/radiation so chapter one is over... It feels really good to know that I am done with that combination therapy! I didn't guess that it would have made me so happy, but it obviously has!!! I guess I don't need to keep saying I'm happy to be done all that :-)

My blood counts are low still on WBC and RBC but not so bad that they need to treat it... but hopefully the 4 to 5 weeks off of Temodar should help those blood cells "grow up" :-)

I went to a neurologist today just to make sure that I am neurologically "normal"... What do you guys think? Dr. Murthy labeled me as 'normal' so that's a good thing! I will be having a baseline EEG next week and will visit him every 3 months. He will be the one that will keep me on the right amount of Keppra which is the anti-seizure medication that I'm taking so that's a good thing... he's wonderful and doesn't need to see me for 3 months... Of course if I start to have my sensory partial seizures again, I will go back and be evaluated. My fingers are crossed on that one... I obviously don't want to smell pine trees anymore while I'm out here in CA!

Today I was lucky enough to drive my Honda Element (obviously local)!!! Of course I didn't wear the Crocs (although I could have since it's been raining/cloudy for 4 days now!) but I wore my Dansko Clogs so I guess that's close enough. It felt great to drive and my sister and Meredith weren't even nervous .... at least they didn't say they were! I made them go to Denny's for breakfast this morning since I was driving, so I guess the last visitors are happy that they were the drivers when they were here!

Amy D's visit was great... it flew by but she sure did do a lot.... Painting a few small things, putting up a new mailbox and putting up a few mirrors... of course she brought me on a few errands and carried the heavy stuff for me :-) I sure can't wait to lift up heavy stuff... last Saturday Amy D left and my sister Amy and Meredith arrived.

My sister has done a lot lately. She is a major cleaning person so she has done lots and lots of that stuff! I never figured out that I cleaned deep and well either until I saw what she did and how long it takes... no wonder it takes an entire day to clean a whole house. So, she is doing it piece by piece..... it's looking awesome. Of course she likes to cook as well, so I can still keep Joann's meals in the freezer for when I'm here alone and can't cook.

Nala is helping take care of Meredith. If my sister and I are busy together, Nala and Meredith play! Of course both Nala and Joey are getting lots of treats from Meredith so they both love her! Meredith is also having a good time feeding a snack to my neighbor's horse ... she even got to ride on Slim (the horse's name) one day with my neighbor... of course the driveway was enough for her, but she was excited! Tomorrow we hope to head to Disney just for the easy rides/kids rides... obviously it's okay for me to ride the kids rides or the easy adult ones.

I am still hoping to do that vaccine study with the dendritic cells but haven't been screened yet. I was hoping to screen this Friday but I have not been called by Anne and Dr. Yu... maybe it's an IRB thing and the consent form hasn't been approved yet. Hopefully that'll be soon. Stay tuned on that one. My friend Antonietta, her brother and her dog/puppy are coming on Friday and will stay here through Monday.

I am also still trying to figure out when I can go back to work... I have to make sure that I have the energy to work plus take care of myself, my house, my pets, etc... I should hopefully know after the first two major cycles of Temodar how I will feel on that dose... it's dosing for 5 days and then there are a few weeks off so I just have to see how I feel and how my blood cell counts are. I will know more details on that whole thing as it starts to happen!

That's it for now...
-"Dahling" Debbie ( I couldn't resist... I still would like to know who said that...)