And the Beat Goes On....

Jim's MRI came back fine, although in their infinite wisdom, Tufts insisted on taking the two ordered sequentially instead of together, on the off chance it would save money. While I was annoyed, I am also horrified by how much this is all costing. We pay a relative pittance, and each hospital visit is a staggering amount. Anyway, we need to see the second MRI that is more detailed before that problem can be entirely ruled out.

Back to Jim. He has an ultra-sound on Monday, to zero in on his vision issues. Later in the day he will get the first dose of the custom-made vaccine from his stem cells, part of the clinical trial he is in. Thursday, he will enter the hospital for an overnight, to receive cytoxan, a powerful chemotherapy drug that will kill the cancer cells (and unfortunately many of the healthy cells) in his body so that the when they go fishing for the stem cells, the blood is as free of cancer as possible. Once he has this done, he will go on a daily regimen of a drug to coax the stem cells out of the bones and into his peripheral blood. (the stuff outside your veins) for about a week. But that puts us ahead of ourselves in this gripping tale, so I will leave you hanging at this point. Tune in next time for....

From our "never a dull moment" department, I got a call this evening from Lynn who was en route to Logan to pick up Chris from his weekly jaunt. In the middle of the Ted Williams Tunnel the entire outside of Lynn's tire tore off. We don't do any steenking nails, or flats. Nope, we shear off the entire outside of the tire....for the second time in a year. This happened before on the Mass Pike coming from a day at a lake last summer. This time, she said she nearly lost control of the van completely. Luckily, everyone is okay, the state police came and towed her to a lot in Southie and even put her spare on for her, at no charge! Something Free in Boston!! (shhhh, don't tell Deval) Can you believe it? Any of it? Thankfully, everyone is fine. She is one intrepid lady!

Some Stats on Jim:

He started out with MM in 75% of his bone marrow. That has been reduced to 14% thanks to 8 rounds of chemo.

He has lost about 60 pounds, and 5 inches in height, since August. He eats almost nothing, yet despite the wasting in his arms and legs, he still has a modest gut. My conclusion is that it pays to be a little overweight to begin with. If he had been 160 at the start, he would be 100 now. At least thats my story and I'm sticking to it!

Happy Mothers Day ladies! Men, I don't care if she's "not your mother," You got her into this, you should certainly do the right thing! (Can you tell I have "been there"?)