We love boring

Hello, all!

The news this week is, really, um, nothing to report. Nancy is continuing to do well, no issues or problems. She is a poster-child transplant patient, and we love how boring the last 12 days have been. It's really hard to believe that it's only 12 days...we're living in a different universe (again) with her at home, and the four weeks in the hospital seem like another lifetime already.

Speaking of lifetimes, she was first diagnosed as a probable leukemia patient exactly four months ago today. That was several universes ago.

So there are a few boring details. Nancy's appetite is still not great, and she has some nausea from her medications. But her sense of taste is improving (chemo really wiped out her taste buds), and she isn't losing weight any more. She wouldn't mind getting back to her collegiate stick-figure, but her doctors and I are firmly against it :-)

Some of her medications are being adjusted downward, and there are indications that she will be going off of them a little sooner than most patients...though she'll still be on them for perhaps two more months. The main immuno-suppressant drug that helps avoid immune system reactions is also slowing down the engraftment process, so the dose has been dialed back. In some way, the last four months have been a pharmacological journey, a drug-controlled, ever-adjusting trip. Her doctor has us looking for continuous small improvements, and this is what we've seen so far...more sense of taste, fewer drugs, more strength. This is the path to recovery.

And odd medical stuff continues to happen around us. The Mystery of all of this deepened when our 14-year-old german shepherd was diagnosed with a bladder cancer last week. I just brought her home from UC Davis tonight, with a stent installed in her urethra so she can pee again. She is back to her frisky loving self, and we hope to have a whole summer of fun with her. Life is fragile, let's embrace it!

Love,

-tdc