Subject: Lesley Update - 10/30/00 Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 09:45:32 -0500 From: David Baldauf Lesley is keeping on keeping on. There are no changes in her condition to report. She has just completed her 12th round of chemotherapy yesterday. It was a normal round - no nausea, and just some increased fatigue. The monthly visit to the doctor went well. We saw a fellow first. He seemed quite interested in Lesley's eyes. He examined them and did a little vision test but didn't say much. He seemed pleased that we had no changes to report from last month. Then we had a long wait until we saw the (pinch hitting) real doctor. We had a different doctor because our neurooncologist was attending a class. The reason we had to wait was that the doctor was seeing two other patients, both of whom I knew! To complete the hat trick later on, we ran into a woman we know who works at MGH. Her son and Kim went through Bright Horizons daycare together. When we finally saw the doctor, he too focused on Lesley's eyes for a while. He noticed that her left eyelid was drooping and asked whether that was new. We said no, that it's a family thing and often happens when she's tired. He seemed satisfied. He said the blood counts were excellent, and since we had not perceived any changes in Lesley the last month, he gave the go-ahead for Round 12. Our favorite nurse also strolled by and chatted for a while. She noted that, based on what she knew, Lesley was one of the longest running patients at MGH on the Temodar. She said there was one other patient she was aware of who was starting Round 13. I felt kind of good and bad about that. On the internet I've heard of some patients doing 24 rounds. We put the Temodar prescription in at the MGH pharmacy (per usual) and grabbed a quick lunch at one of their auxiliary cafeterias where we could monitor whether her prescription had been filled. Much to our surprise, they set a world record and had it ready in less than 30 minutes! It usually runs from 1 to 2 hours wait. Lesley is doing well here. Going on the treadmill and working on the basement and making Halloween costumes and worrying about the kids. :-) Earlier this month we spent the Sunday and Monday of Columbus Day weekend out in western Massachusetts. We had one day at Six Flags New England amusement park where the kids finally got to ride the Superman roller coaster. It was a blustery day - we even drank hot chocolate. We stayed overnight in West Springfield (unfortunately, no indoor pool), and spent Monday driving around the Berkshires looking for the perfect leaves. Too bad the leaves had not yet reached their peak. But we did get a little snow flurry at one of our stops. I posted a few pictures on the web site. October of 1999 was a turbulent month last year. Thankfully, this October has not been. Dave -- Dave Baldauf, h/o Lesley, gbm, dx/srg 8/99, rad 9/99, rad completed 10/99, debulk srg 10/99, bone flap removal srg due to infection 11/99, started Temodar 12/99, ended 12th round of Temodar 10/29/00 mailto:dbaldauf@alumni.brown.edu web site: http://www.davebaldauf.com