Go Badgers!

 It's been another big week around here, so let's do the round up. 

1. Eliot the cat has been really perfecting his skills at Heating Pad Hot Lava, a game in which he never lets his delicate little paws touch the ground, instead moving from soft space with an available heating pad to the the next soft space with an available heating pad. "Available" is a little bit of a tricky word, since he assumes if you go to the loo or lean forward to grab your water bottle the heating pad has "become available" but that's why he's such a high scorer at this game.

2. Ruth is crushing it in her new role at work, putting in a lot of time but also learning a lot of new skills and preparing to host an incredible summer for her CTD Campers. She's feeling relieved to be taking a break from school, and this means getting more sleep and even finding time for a little Pokémon Go. She would not mind if our neighbors wanted to drop off easy to warm up dinners once in a while to save a little time and energy.

3. Jean IS currently in the study in Madison (woo hoo!), though I still don't know if I am in the 67%.  But oh I shall jump through hoops on my way to finding out! We've got CT scans, EKGs, Eye Exams, Biopsies - you name it, I'm going for it! As you may remember, my previous chemo treatments weren't working, and my last (ineffective) treatment was 15 April. The study requires a 4 week flush of all chemo meds, so I'll be off treatment for the next month. Part of this is great - chemo makes me feel like hell, and I actually feel better not undergoing treatment. However, the major thing that chemo has been trying to do is to shrink the tumors in my liver so my liver can keep functioning, and keep me alive. Without effective treatment, and now without any treatment at all, this means the tumors have all the freedom they need to grow, and this? is scary. There's a chance that my liver could be in danger in the next month, but there's not much we can do about it. We are just hoping for the best between now and the beginning of my next treatment. 

As I mentioned in my last post, participating in this study requires a lot of overnight trips up there - three right now in May alone. We are still building a calendar of appointments as the UW shares them with us. If you would like to helps us out with cash or hotel points or other, we'd appreciate it. We've put together a little (edited to remove spreadsheet as it no long applies), but my CashApp ($JeanStanDoan) and Venmo (@JeanStanDoan) are also open.

5. Jean and Quinn are heading to Nashville on Sunday to learn about the 7 clinical trials they have. This is mostly a back up plan in case something falls through with Madison, or if the trial at Madison is ineffective, I'll be prepared with some back-up plans. Mostly it will involve singing the RENT soundtrack, and hopefully more Egg McMuffins.

6. Jean and Ruth made the big step to buy a new (used) car for these adventures. With high hopes for the Madison study, we've named her The Badger. As many of you may be wondering, "Does Jean actually drive?" I think this image ----> explains where we are at on that.