The corner has been turned

Vlad is feeling much better. His blood tests on Tuesday revealed normal patterns. He went back this morning for his post-treatment biopsy. This is the big one. It was more painful this time; I think his body is not handling pain as well. But he's got loads of Vicodin. He rarely takes it, but today has been an exception.

He wants to return to work Sept. 8. But that's not official yet. He goes back to Conlon next week for some kind of followup with preliminary results and then he's supposed to get the full biopsy results Sept. 11. We're expecting good results. But there is the chance of a bad result. Conlon said he'd discuss further treatment options at that time if necessary; I guess there are a lot of variables.

I've ignored this final test all this time. Don't want to think about it. I've wanted to believe remission is remission. How could he be in remission and then go through all that chemo and not be in remission anymore? Not going there.

On top of this, Hurricane Gustav looks like another Katrina/Rita and could hit us early next week. I'm supposed to change caps to newsperson instead of gardeningperson next week if it hits here. Working those overnight shifts downtown, sleeping in a hotel room with other displaced Chronicle people, like we don't have our own storm problems at home. (I used to be such a gung-ho journalist). And TS Hannah could cruise into the Gulf after Gustav.

I don't know how we can wind things up any tighter around here this week. I picked a great time to stop drinking. Actually I've stopped ingesting most carbohydrates and all empty calories, which unfortunately for me, includes Rosemont Shiraz and Tecate cerveza.