Hello strangers

I know, it's been a while.

Anna had a good week of chemo treatments. Wednesday and Thursday were relatively quick treatments. She had a bit of a hard time one of the days when one of the nurses got a little concerned about Anna's "numbers" (white blood cell count, hemoglobin, etc). At the end though, was a bunch of excitement over nothing. Just one of those moments of unnecessary confusion and stress that probably wasn't necessary. Other than that, it was a bit of an uneventful week. Our friend Kathleen continued to drive her all week and that worked out pretty well.

Things are beginning to get back closer to normal. Well, I guess as normal as they can be in this situation. I actually went out on Thursday night to a Rangers game with my friend Brian and was able to have a couple beers and a good time (Thanks Brian). After the game, I went up to Anna's parents house and stayed there for the night. They were trying to put TJ to sleep by the time I got there, so I didn't get to see him that night but was able to spend some time with Anna. Also, I did get to see TJ in on Friday morning so that was pretty cool. The whole gang (anna, tj, and her parents) came out here for the day on Friday. TJ dressed up as Donald Duck for Halloween and they got quite a few trick-or-treaters before I got home from work. Here are a couple pics
http://anna.gaff.net/image/tid/4

Also, quite a few neighbors stopped by and Anna was able to spend a little time with them. I think she enjoyed getting caught back up with everyone and participating in a normal activity like handing out candy. She still gets a little tired sometimes and can't do too much at once but other than the occasional 30 minute nap, she's back to a pretty regular sleep schedule and night and is up most of the day. She'll do a few activities like fold laundry, etc but definitely isn't back to running around just yet. This coming week she's down to just two chemo treatments, so I am hoping she'll feel even better. Also, her primary doctor is back from vacation so she's happy to get caught up with him.

Plus, for the next two weeks, Anna is staying out here at our house. This week, her Aunt Xiomara comes down and will stay with us. Next week my mom will be here. TJ will bounce around a bit, but there is definitely a little more activity in the house these days. Our friends Ira and Chris stopped by today for a brief visit. It was good to see them and get caught up on everything that's been going on lately.

I'm going to try to hit the NYC marathon tomorrow with TJ to cheer on our friend Kathleen and all of the other runners. If anyone else is going, please drop me an email or a text message or something. It really depends on TJ's schedule as the time to see Kathleen is pretty close to nap time.