Chemo day - the first step on the road to recovery.

It's so cool to have MJ home. Cousin Jackie left Saturday morning on the Greyhound to DC. Jackie's visit was wonderful....we planned a cozy week at home, but by the time she arrived MJ was unexpectedly back at Magee. So Jackie became expert at navigating route 71a on the Port Authority Bus...and we tag-teamed it. Home with Sam and Zoe, and at Magee with MJ. Thank you Jackie. We miss you.

A couple hours after Jackie left, MJ came home. I have to be honest with you...she's frail. Not a lot of stamina, a fair amount of nausea, and still somewhat short of breath. Fortunately, my sister Betsy arrived from Minneapolis that same afternoon. So good to have her with us...thanks Mike for letting us have her!

So with MJ home and Betsy here, we've been setting up for end-of-summer, return to school and chemo. Betsy and I have been doing some fun cooking....although MJ's appetite hasn't been great. Sam started his internship this week. He's working with Susanne Gollin in her genetics lab. Pretty exciting. Zoe will be going to Naperville to be with my brother and his family this weekend. A busy few days.

And today, I'm writing this entry from the Women's Cancer Center at Magee. MJ is finally getting her first chemo treatment. We've been looking forward to this for quite a while. We settled on a little less aggressive chemo regimen to start with....for at least two cycles. MJ will get Taxol and Carboplatin I.V. today, and again in three weeks. She'll have the intervening three weeks off. After that time, depending on her response to the treatment, we may move to some more aggressive treatment.

We're feeling very positive about the chemo. They're getting very adept at handling side effects these days, and the drugs are getting more specific in targeting cancer cells. The surgery MJ had when she first came to Magee removed all of the MACRO-scopic tumor. The chemo is aimed at the remaining MICRO-scopic tumor (plus whatever has grown back in the interim). There's still a lot of tumor left....as evidenced by the fluid in the lungs, fluid in the abdomen, pain etc. These symptoms will all be significantly improved by the chemo, since it will likely get all of this remnant tumor. So the chemo is indeed the path to recovery. We'll be sure MJ gets whatever nutritional supplements are appropriate in chemotherapy. Additional treatments (including some alternative treatments) may play a role once MJ is in remission.

You may have noticed that there are no more volunteer food dates on the helpinghands website. We are cooking much more often now. We will, however, add some other tasks...including some Zoe activities (breakfast, lunch and other outings). We've also set up an account at WHEEL DELIVER for restaurant meals delivered to our home. If you would like to make a donation to WHEEL DELIVER for us just call (412) 421-9346 and tell them you want to donate to the "Tocci Rest" account. They'll tell us about your donation.

So that's it for now. MJ is feeling stronger today, and we are very hopeful for the future. Thank you for hanging in there with us. Love MJ and JR.

Addendum:
Now 8:30 pm on first chemo day. MJ feels good. Our spirits are excellent.
JR