Numbers

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First week of radiation down. Karen has no real tiredness yet (other than the after-effects of chemo, which are slowly improving), though that probably won't start for another week or so. No real redness in the irradiated area either, but that again is about a week away from what we've heard.

Karen's blood counts were lower this week, with both white and red below the low end of average. They gave her a red cell booster this week and an appointment for another check next week. So that remains a weekly check at least for the time being.

Oh, and for those who haven't seen her, she has hair again. Fuzzy, fine and short, but hair. And, yes Mom Monroe, it is coming in red. So far, it's finer than it was, but growing at a decent rate and thickening. By next weekend, maybe the one after, it will look as though she has a buzz cut on purpose. By then we might know how much it wants to curl.

I'll leave you with this thought provided by the radio-oncologist. As he put it, doctors treat cancer with radiation and chemotherapy for the benefit of 6 out of 10 patients. The numbers break down like this. If someone with Karen's rough particulars has no chemo or radiation after surgery, there is a 70% recurrence rate. With chemo and rads, that drops to about 10%. That means 3 out of 10 people don't need any chemo or rads and 1 in 10 won't respond to them. So the doctors are treating for the 6 out of 10 who both need them and will respond. As he put it, the trick will be to one day identify those 6 out of 10 and only treat them. Why put someone through the discomfort and potential side effects who doesn't need it or won't respond to it.

Just an interesting perspective.

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