Seattle finally got summer -- it lasted from Tuesday to Saturday last week, and is already over (we're looking for a high of 69 today). But it was nice; I spent a lot of time sitting in the shade in the anti-gravity chair that Mom bought me, reading my Kindle, watching plants suddenly grow (as opposed to stunt themselves in the cold).

The last three weeks have been nearly steady improvement. I loved my first "Week Without Chemo". My dizziness (did I mention my weeks of dizziness?) have become quite rare, and my crazy periods of being out of breath for little reason, are also becoming rarer.

Best of all, I just had my first tumor marker test since my diagnosis. The original test was over 3000 -- a ridiculous high result. My newest result was 1200 -- still high, of course, but less than 1/2 of what it had been only two months ago.

My other blood results: I had some anemia back in 2006 on Taxol, so we're watching my counts, but they're hard to read, at least for us non-doctor folks. They test RBCs, hematocrit, hemoglobin and other blood fractions, and some look good and others don't. But the most recent test was actually an improvement -- so we're hopeful that the lower numbers were left over from the radiation results (radiating a big bone like the femur can lower RBCs until it recovers), instead of being a Taxol result. We just need to keep an eye on it, and I need to eat some red meat each week.

I still get tired easily. My hip and knee seem to be much more painful (which may be true -- joint problems and pain are known side effects of Taxol). My hair is definitely coming out, despite my weird belief that it wasn't going to fall out this time. There are days when I get almost nothing done. But there are other days: Brie and I managed to move our huge three-bin composter; and a host of smaller projects. I need to concentrate on the things done and not the things undone.

Things are definitely good and getting better. (Some part of me feels like it's tempting fate not to put the words, "at least for now", at the end of that. How weird.)

Upcoming: I have a new MRI in two weeks, to see if the Avastin has had any effect on my brain tumor. I have a CT scan around the end of August, and x-rays on my femur in October to see how my lung and bone tumors are doing. I'll post when I know.