We Continue

Well it's been more than 2 weeks since my last post and for some of you I know it's a blessing, my rants and all. But for some of you it truly is the only way you keep track of Ret's progress, so for that first group hang in there.

We did meet Friday 4/10, with Ret's local oncologist in Edmonds and things seem to be moving along fine. We're working on changing the dosages of some of the med's to hopefully reduce the "morning sickness" feeling, which on some days is all day, the doc is great and certainly willing to do what's best as long as the desired results for the cancer aren't jeopardized so that's good. We're still somewhat on plan for the transplant in early summer, the one change might be this however. The measure of the meds effectiveness is if Ret's M-Protein, "The Bad Guy's" drops in count and the goal is to get that count as low as possible before the transplant, so if that count continues to drop then they will continue the drug therapy longer resulting in a later start for the transplant. A little explanation on the M-Protein. Just think of the bone marrow as a pipe only so big, meaning it can carry only so much. So what's happening is the M-Protein, "Bad Guy" is mutating at a much greater rate than normal thus crowding out all the "Good Guys" so they can't do their work. Again they want to get that count as low as possible before the transplant. Possibly moving the timeline a little later into the summer than we originally thought, but again that's if in fact the count continues to drop if it levels off we'll go as planned.

A couple of cool things. The cards and letters just keep on coming, she hands me each one and says "oh you need to read this one", I know I've said this before but it really does brighten Ret's day. Oh yea girls weekend, the gang from high school, happened at the river this last weekend I know they had fun, I could tell by all the hooting and hollering in the background when I called, but it was holy hell on me! It was the first time we had been apart since this whole thing started. So instead of camping out across the river on the island with my binoculars, spotlight and being a real pest, I stayed up river at Norm and Carol Formo's and just called, not too far away just in case Ret needed me. Somehow the girls pulled it off!

Again thanks for all your heartfelt wishes.

Love,
Ret & Jack

One Week Post-Hutch Visit

Well this will be a short one.........and that's a good thing. A little over a week since our visit to the Hutch and things are about the same. One thing though there seems to be a little more "morning sickness" than normal that hangs around or better said just pops up during the day. Not sure if that's the additional meds or just a phase I guess that will be one more question for the doc's. Ret hasn't slowed down too much a couple days a week at work, still planing girls weekend over at Entiat plus trying to cram in enough summer before we actually have to stay in Seattle for that 6-7 month period when we need to be close to the Hutch. So I guess that means trips over Stevens Pass every weekend until they make us stay home, not like we wouldn't do it anyway. Just trying to stay as normal as possible.

As I mentioned last week, man the cards and letters keep coming which is a great thing they certainly bring a huge smile to Ret's face. Just one little fun thing and I'll give my fingers and your minds a rest. Mike Leys, TJ's best man from Philly wife Jess and little guy Toby sent a little homemade photo album which was really cool. As you can imagine a ton of pic's mostly of "The Tobster" at the beach reeling in the babes, cruising on mom and dads boat in Chesapeake Bay, carving some major arch's on the mountain and just being a normally cool 3 year old. Mike has always called Ret mom, right from the time he and TJ met at school back in Philly, so to have her second son and his family send treasured moments to her is really special.

Love,
Ret and Jack