Shelly

OK, so it's raining outside but in the Waxman household the sun is shining. Shelly's CAT scan showed two important things.

First, the effusion, which was the cancerous fluid that nearly filled Shelly's lung cavity on the left side and caused the pain that brought Shelly to the oncologist in February, is gone.

We looked at the CAT scan taken in February and compared it to today's. There is no sign of the cancerous fluid at all. None.

Second, the tumor itself appears not to be larger and in view of the dramatic change in the cancerous fluid, the doctor thinks that it is likely that the tumor we see on the film might actually be dead. It takes time for dead tissue to resorb.

There will be two more rounds of chemo followed by a PET scan which will show whether the tumor itself has any activity. We are hopeful that the news will be good but that won't be for about six weeks.

Next week it's an MRI to check the brain tumors that were 'gamma knifed' five weeks ago. The doctor is optimistic that this will be negative as well. He was so pleased with today's findings that he told Shelly 'you made my day'. I think the feeling is mutual.

In the meantime we keep moving forward, one day at a time.

And thank you yet again for your kind thoughts and wishes. Maybe it's not the chemo after all :-)