In other news, I got up at 2:45am yesterday for an early flight to Michigan, and then crashed last night and slept for 10 well-deserved hours. There are many softball games, birthday celebrations, and dance recitals in my future.

Laura, you're far too kind. After a bit of that back-and-forth I'd have loudly asked the SIL in front of the whole group if it really never occurred to her that inviting a whole gaggle of strangers to an outdoor event at a secured building with those entry requirements would result in constant inconvenience for her hosts, or if she realized and just didn't care because it wouldn't be her that was inconvenienced.

There are many softball games, birthday celebrations, and dance recitals in my future.

Really hoping that you're going to be IN the dance recitals.

Just LET ME HAVE THIS DREAM, okay?

Travel safely, shrift!

JZ, may everything be smooth for the rest of the weekend. Man, the human body is both a marvel and a hot mess at the same time.

As I age I realize even more how weird bodies are. Like, in the last ten years I learned that eating a small meal in the morning sets my digestion going big time, and bathroom time becomes NOT OPTIONAL very quickly. I have yet to excuse myself from a physical meeting, but at one point I had to duck out of my own team call because my colon was not taking "not yet" for an answer.

I'm doing a strategic leadership training for the next two weeks, and I'm not psyched about it, because the materials are just really high level about strategy and stuff. This weekend I have to write up stuff about My Best Personal Leadership Experience and I have no idea what to say. I hope the classroom sessions will be more useful, although 80% of the folks there will be 20 years younger than me. Sigh.

There are many softball games, birthday celebrations, and dance recitals in my future.

That sounds like fun family reconnections.

The good news on the bloodwork shows that the liver is much happier, the inference being that the mets there are responding to the study drug. The metastases along the abdominal wall don't produce any such information in the bloodwork, but we're hopeful that if it's working in one place it will work in the other.

The import of it all is that it is the disseminated abdominal mets which make her cancer inoperable. If those go away there's a path forward for curative surgery. (And this has happened to another patient during this clinical trial.)

Of course we're kind of grasping for good news straws at this point, as it's early in the process. But we get a CT scan in late May and we'll know for sure.

So that's why we're trying to power through the obstacle course and stay for treatment Mon-Weds.

Emmett gets the Big Damn Hero award for stepping up immediately to look after his sister for a whole week, which makes it possible.

Oh I’m so glad. Hoping this is s sign of treatment results to come. And that the logistics give you all a break after this sucky hiccup.

Yay for a happier liver!

Just LET ME HAVE THIS DREAM, okay?

What I want to know is what costume am I wearing in this dream?

Man, the human body is both a marvel and a hot mess at the same time.

Trufax.

We'll be taking advantage of the two-day blank spot in the calendar to go to The Last Bookstore today or tomorrow. I'm very excited about it.

I'm slightly weirded out by how quickly both Hec and I have slid into "we" for all of this. But it's a team effort, and he is honestly slightly more on top of things than I am. I'm just trying to stay on top of the next thing right up ahead; he's juggling all the pieces of the big picture. It all feels like a "we" thing.

JZ if you can focus on anything you can or want to and leave the rest to him, that’s amazing and what a partner is for. Fingers crossed your abdominal Mets are responding!!

Laura that is v obnoxious of your SIL, you should lay down some rules for her and her guests so you aren’t super inconvenienced (like how often they can leave or come back or if they have to do it all together or whatever)

Bravo Zulu to your whole team, JZ and Hec!