My father-in-law had a scan earlier this month, and the chemotherapy is
working.
It's also caused a bunch of hair loss. He's visiting now, and it looks
to me like he's lost at least two-thirds of the hair on his head. He
gave the figure 80% when Dan's aunt (his mother's sister) came by this
afternoon to admire babies.
He looks a lot older than he did last time I saw him, but then again,
last time I saw him he looked 10-15 years younger than his actual age,
so it's not as bad as it could be.
On the bad-news front: one of our dogs (Miranda) was diagnosed with
terminal cancer less than a week after the babies were born. It stared
in her spleen and spread to her liver, and way before we knew anything
was wrong, it was too late to really do anything for her. She's lost a
lot of weight. She was given 3-6 months to live, based on the liver
cancer, but her spleen is in bad shape and has been very slowly leaking,
and there's a decent chance that before the cancer in her liver gets
her, the leak will speed up to a faster leak and kill her in a 2-72 hour
period. But if that happens, we've been told it won't be painful for
her. As long as she's not hurting and can enjoy at least *some* sort of
food or another (she won't touch her dog food anymore, but she'll eat
steak with great gusto, and the remains of grilled cheese sandwiches,
among other things), we don't want to just put her down -- it would
probably be nicer for her to just die at home, in familiar surroundings
with everyone she loves, instead of at the vet's. I'm just hoping she
doesn't die before my sister visits next month -- she loves my sister
more than anyone else in the world, it seems, and I'd like for them to
see each other one last time.
So, good news and bad news. (And the bad news has caused a lot of tears
here.)
Julia
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