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... less to go. The second appointment went as easily as the first.

A couple interesting updates. With the false positive for one of the receptors, the number of the next round of drugs not only went from two drugs to one, and from every week to every other, it also was reduced from the original 12 weekly doses to 4 biweekly. So two more of this round, then 4 of the next, and it's all good. That should mean chemo finishes by early June. Looks like Dragon*Con is back on the menu, boys.

The other good news was that with the one false positive out of the way, the chance of recurrence over the next 10 years goes way down, 26% if she stops treatment right now, 13% if she completes chemo, 8% if she does chemo and the follow-on Tamoxophin for 5 years. Even better.

Now the not as good news. When the doctor looked at Karen's blood count from last Monday, he said, "Whoa." Her counts dropped faster than he anticipated. Nothing bad, no change in treatment at the moment, but he advised we be very careful on days 5-12 after chemo rather than the 7-12 he was first thinking. Her white count was not high, more the normal range of where she started. Something to keep an eye on but not to worry about.

So, this coming Saturday through the following Friday, we'll be living a bit closer to home where the rest of the time we can come out and play, prudently. That will be the pattern for the next six weeks. Fortunately, the next round doesn't hit as hard, so that may adjust. One stage at a time.

The doctor has said the pattern for this round should continue with the same level of minimal side effects for Karen for the duration with the exception of her fatigue growing as it continued, which was very encouraging. He also looked at her and said, "I spend my day meeting and talking to people and have developed a sense about people. I can see you will come through this fine." That was also encouraging to hear.

Another reason to like the doctor; he likes Belgian beer. Better and better.

That's the news for this round.

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