Back from Vacation

As you can see in these pictures, we had a great time on our family vacation to Florida! Spent lots of time swimming and collecting sea shells. I took a picture of Sam's foot standing on the beach where there are so many shells in some spots that you can't even see sand. Also, there's a picture of the sunrise viewed from our balcony which overlooked the resort's beach and pool area.

Tropical storm Fay did make us evacuate Sanibel island on Monday night (stayed in a Ft Myers hotel on higher ground), but we were right back on the beach the next day after the storm made landfall to the South and had passed on its way up to the Florida panhandle. Overall, we had great weather except for a few rain showers and the stormy day.

Sarah is feeling fairly well -- she started another 2 week Xeloda cycle on Friday and hasn't had any significant nausea or fatigue so far. The main side effect is that the skin on her feet is continuously peeling off (like after a very bad sunburn) and it makes them tender and uncomfortable to walk on. We're in a relatively good place right now. We're continuing to monitor tumor markers and Sarah will get another set of MRIs (brain and liver) near the end of Sept. If those are clear then we hope she can take a break from chemo -- what a relief that will be after this marathon of over 1.5 yrs of nearly continuous chemo!

Although we can't ignore that progression almost certainly lies somewhere in the future, we are very thankful that Sarah's many treatments have bought us precious time - time for cancer research to continue advancing towards a cure, and time for us to spend together. As always, we are focusing on living life to its fullest today and only worrying about the future when we need to in order to make the best decisions about what to do next. Let's pray for a looooong "quiet" period for Sarah!