tom's blog

Today was another chemo day. This one was a shot again. I was able to get here just slightly after the chemo was administered and we spent a little extra time together today. She reacted pretty well. Was a little tired as usual, but all in all did pretty good. We had a few nice conversations today and our love and appreciation has really grown over these past couple of weeks. In the back of my mind, I always had this concern that this stressful event would put a strain on our relationship, but ir really has done just the opposite. We both really look forward to spending time together and probably talk more now than we were before all of this started. Perhaps sitting in a quiet room without a two-year old helps the conversation.

My parents are still looking after TJ. Anna's parents stopped by the hospital tonight and brought another nice home cooked meal. Chicken and rice. Yum!

Not sure if everyone reads all of the comments on a regular basis, but I wanted to draw your attention to the posts from our good friend Kathleen Reddy (aka kreddy). Unfortunately, the Reddy family has been previously hit with cancer and what we're going through is very familiar to Kathleen and her family. Kathleen has been working with a group called "Team in Training" and their mission is "TNT is the world's largest endurance sports training program, preparing people of all athletic abilities to run or walk a 26.2-mile marathon or a 13.1-mile half marathon, or to complete a 100-mile (century) bike ride or a triathlon. In return for professional training and travel to one of many national event sites, participants raise valuable funds to support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS's) mission."

Kathleen is running in a half marathon on October 18th and running in the NYC marathon on November 2nd. She's decided to run these events in honor of Anna along with in memory of her father who lost his battle to cancer in 2002. Anna and I had attended the wake for her father and they have a wonderful supporting family. You can read more about Kathleen's running efforts on her website http://www.reddy2run.com, if you were going to donate somewhere, please donate through her fund raising efforts on her website.

Anna wanted to thank Steve Calise and Stephanie for sending cards today. Also, thanks everyone else for the comments.

Also, her Godfather's pacemaker was installed successfully and he's recuperating very nicely. He should be home in a couple of days if the progress continues.

At this point, that's all we're looking for... slow and steady progress. Every time she goes through a chemo day, the following 24 hours are a little rough and then she bounces back. Her Dad and Uncle came out mid-day to visit and bring a little home cooked food and that always helps to cheer her up.

The doctor came by this morning and spoke with her again about going home. He's continuing to see steady progress with all of the important statistics, so we're all optimistic. He's beginning to ease her off of steroids and some of the other meds, which is very encouraging. We're targeting mid to end of next week for her to go home, assuming we continue to make progress. Her last intensive (inpatient) round of chemo is next Monday. So, she'll need a couple days of recovery and then hopefully we'll move her back to the house. Once we are there, she'll still be very restricted in terms of what she can do and we'll definitely need to continue the rotation of having family members stay with us but at least it will be progress. There are still possibilities along the way that she could need to come back or her current stay could get extended, but we'll worry about that when we need to. She was a bit emotional and anxious about going home, which is a normal reaction given all that she has been through. She gets great care in the hospital around the clock and all she needs to do is press a button and one of the nurses come running down the hall. Despite our best efforts, I suspect we won't be able to equal that at home. After talking with a few people and praying on it for peace of mind, she is now emotionally ready to go home. Even once we are home, we have another two months of pretty frequent treatments and then about 2 years of treatments in total. I'm supposed to meet with the Doctor on Friday, so I should get a better idea of exactly what the plan is going to look like and what type of support we'll need at home. Additionally, in about two weeks she'll have to undergo another bone marrow test which will give them the most accurate reading on the current status of the cancer.

So, as always a few special mentions... Happy Birthday to Debbie and Yesy. Thanks Doe (my grandfather's sister) for sending a card. Also, thanks to Marilyn (neighbor) for sending a card and poem. Also, thanks everyone for the active participation today. Glad to see everyone is back after a quiet weekend.