finishing the first set of chemo

Hi there.  Yesterday was another round of chemotherapy and it was the last before I get another CT scan next Thursday.  We did one scan before chemo started as a baseline so now we compare how the tumors look.  The doctor is hopeful that the progress will be good since the paracentesis fluid situation has improved so much and I seem to be doing better as well.  So while I will almost certainly still be on chemo and everything else after next week, at least we'll know if it's better, worse or just the same.

This past weekend was a big birthday celebration.  Mine was the 25th, my sister Danielle's is the 29th and my mom follows on 11/6.  Originally my other sister Dana and her whole brood (husband and 17 year old twins) were to have joined us but they had to back out at the last minute due to a family emergency on the in-laws side.  So the smaller group of us (including mom and Dad and Dave) and a lovely dinner at Quarter Bistro in Ann Arbor (a great place you locals, try it sometime!) and spent the weekend hanging around the house.  It wasn't a great last few days as far as my stamina levels but I did manager to cook a pretty great dinner for their first night in town. 

The other nights we ate at home we had an amazing butternut squash and arugula lasagna that Val made and then a wonderful tomato soup with cheese tortellini that Dave's sister Sarah had made and sent frozen.  All in all, we've been eating really well on the food others give us!  We also had some ridiculously good chocolate stout cupcakes that Katy from the Cafe Ops team made and sent home with Dave (luckily she made some for the office, too because they needed to be shared!).

Here are a couple of pics from dinner.





And a couple from around the house.