Ramona and I just got back from the hospital...it feels like it's been quite a day already...anyway, Ramona wanted me to blog...she's pretty (meaning extremely) tired and just resting on the couch here for a bit...she wanted me to make the blog sound optimistic...which in reality we got some really optimistic news...Dr. Ferguson (the surgeon who will remove the armpit and hip tumors) chatted with us this morning after he had reviewed these latest MRI's....the armpit tumor has shrunk significantly...he said that on the MRI he could see 'residue' of the tumor...and when he physically tried to feel it...he could barely find it...the big concern was that the tumor was affecting the nerves and blood vessels in the area too much....making surgery incredibly difficult...with the good response the auxilla tumor had to radiation, Dr. Ferguson is now more optimistic about that surgery...it looks good enough at this point that they can do the armpit and the hip in one surgery...speaking of which, the hip tumor didn't significantly respond to radiation...which is okay...the armpit was the bigger concern...Dr. Ferguson confirmed that they would have to remove part of the hip bone during that surgery...they are not sure if there is cancer in that bone...but there is no point in taking chances...as far as the lungs are concerned...we will need to wait and see a little bit...Dr. Ferguson hinted that it might be possible to just do surgery without chemo...and do the lung surgery a week or two after the other ones...we're not really setting our hopes there at this point...I can't remember the lung surgeon's name...but Dr. Ferguson will talk to him about the timing and the steps that need to be taken there...I guess you could say that Ramona and I are both in pretty contemplative moods...while in the hospital after hearing all this stuff we waited long enough for the doctors to leave the room before we were hugging......but for some reason I appreciate Ramona as a visionary person...and I've noticed this from other times when we received good news...she almost immediately sets her mind on the next step...and doesn't neccesarily get caught up in the giggly excitement of the moment...i love her alot......i think i'm going to maybe quit writing now and help her pack...the limo (which apparently costs the same as a taxi) will be here in one hour and eighteen minutes...cheers...earl