The Great Cancer Adventure that we’re on continues to hurl us through seemingly endless valleys, peaks, twists and turns.  It’s the hard left turns that really get to me.  There is just a shock to the system that takes some recovery time when things that are going so well suddenly go bad.  Fortunately, the recovery is easier on the head when things that are going badly suddenly get better.

Maggie is doing great.  All of her symptoms, including the rash, have significantly improved.  It’s definitely not all gone but compared to “really awful” it’s “pretty darn ok.”  The rash and pustules on her back have completely disappeared (Where’d they go?, we ask.)  The ones on her chest are about 90% gone.  Her face, well, it’s just sprung back to life full of smiles and laughter.  And my soul rejoices like wilted flowers in the late summer rain.

We accredit the neck-snapping left turn to the steroid Maggie now takes twice a day, religiously – prednisone.

The swelling of her nose, lips and chin is essentially gone.  We’ve yet to have any new pustules and the rash has faded substantially.  The previous pustules (and badly-affected skin) is, for lack of a better description, molting.  Yes, odd but true.  The process hasn’t completed so we’re not sure what’s on the other side but a) there’s no more pain, and b) there’s no more pustules so far.

To quote Bill and Ted, folk heroes of linguistic elegance and brevity: “Excellent!”