Overdue posting!!

I’ve been on a regular schedule of writing and posting every Wednesday for the past 5 months, but time got away from me last week. I was busy at work trying to wrap things up before taking off for a mini-vacation on Thursday evening. The good news is that there really wasn’t anything for me to report last week. I’ve been enjoying my time off Erbitux and getting my strength and energy back though this has taken almost the full two weeks to reach this point. The rash continued to get worse during the first week off, but now has almost completely subsided, just in time for Dose 1, Round 3. I’m not going to start complaining about this yet, I’ll leave that for later in this round. I’ve been on the increased dose of Sandostatin for 2 weeks now and am starting to see a difference. I’m certainly not constipated, but my trips to the bathroom each day are now under double digits. And I’m not as afraid to venture away from my comfort zones, like into the forest for another mountain climb (Speckled Mountain). It wasn’t as high as Mt. Tecumseh, but the whole hike was a lot longer at 8.2 miles.

I was exhausted and sore at the end of the day, but very satisfied with my latest accomplishment. Instead of hiking again on Saturday we decided to soak in the local air (Bethel, ME) and hung around for the Mollyockett Day parade. Pat took pictures – I’ll post them later. We took our time driving, stopped at Poland Spring and saw “The Source”, played a really lousy game of mini golf, and finally ended up in Portsmouth, NH. It was a great weekend – lots of relaxing and culminating in a really delicious dinner at the Wellington Room in Portsmouth, NH. And being able to enjoy a meal like this makes my twice daily shots of Sandostatin worthwhile.

Pictures of this and the previous several trips to follow – eventually!!!