23 and me

It Was A Very Good Year?

Packing all weekend.  Almost.  I did other interesting things.  Took the dog to the vet, mowed the lawn, restacked boxes.  I am a nonstop movable feast.

Yesterday, a friend of Jenny's was in town with his wife and kid.  We haven't seen this guy in 23 years.  Wild.  Anyway, he learned she was dying, so they planned a road trip from Irvine to Seattle.  We had breakfast at Lulu's.  We talked all things cancer, mostly.  There was crying and sorrow, but also glimpses of hope in the conversation.  Then, Jenny turned to me and asked if I knew what her cancer marker # is as of the most recent measurement.  I asked if she wanted me to lie or tell the truth, and obviously she wanted the truth.  I told her 15k.  She went white.  "That's almost double," she said quietly, trying to sound less terrified than she was.

She went to see Sheila last night, and when she got home, she almost immediately started sobbing and offering lamentations over what is likely her impending demise. The 15k number really shook her. 

Speaking of which, I signed up for an academic listserv to send me new papers on pancreatic adenocarcinoma. This morning I opened my email, and there is a link to a paper done by Dr. P and associates at Virginia Mason. Entitled, "Rare long-term survivors of pancreatic adenocarcinoma without curative resection," it is a Virginia Mason specific study. Weirdly, its from 6 years ago. Nonetheless, it is informative.  At VM, between 1995 and 2009, 2 percent of patients with locally advanced or metastatic cancer lived 5 years from time of diagnosis. At the time, median survival was the same as today for those with metastatic disease, 3-6 months. No study like this had been done before, and I have found none since, and the authors explain the reason thusly:

"The paucity of such reports is related to the fact that non-resected long-term survivors are exceedingly rare.  .  ."

The paucity of such reports is relatedto the fact that non-resected long-term survivors areexceedingly rare 

Jenny's energy and health have been impressive (off and on) these last few days.  She has been a packing machine today. 

This is all so much, I am exhausted.

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