Hi
Once again, my cousins pulled through for me! Mike Jennings is coming
down to hang out with me, which is so nice of him. Although the 4
degree temps in Chicago
may have something to do with it! He wasn't the only one who offered to
change their plans at the last minute. Tom invited me to Austin but
when he found out I couldn't be more than 15 minutes from the hospital,
he offered to leave his pregnant wife and miss his in-law's gathering
to be with me. And Suzie, a mother of two, said she'd fly in from
Denver if I needed her. How lucky am I to have such amazing people in
my life?!?
So my mom just left to go home to a
blizzard and have a white Christmas. I'm so happy she will spend the
holidays with everyone at home and see all the kids--they make Christmas so fun. I'm happy to be in sunny Texas
for another week and enjoy the 70 degree weather while I can. Megan
will come when Mike goes home Saturday and help me pack up and leave
Houston after an amazing three months. In some ways Oct. 1st seems like
a lifetime ago and that Houston is now home, but on the flip side, I
can't believe it's all over and done with so quickly.
I may be getting ahead of myself though, because I still have a few more blood tests to get through and have to get the doctors OK to leave. I see him next Wed., the 31st and will find out then. I
have already booked a flight home for that day though, so I must be
feeling pretty confident everything will go smoothly. Along with the
fatigue, I am
having a lot of bone pain, especially in my hips and thighs, which
makes it hard to get up from a sitting position, but as the doctors
said, this is a good thing. Bone marrow is made primarily in the hip area and the long bones, so they are doing their job!
Below is a picture of me and a woman named Sally. Sally was diagnosed with bone mets from breast cancer
this past May. She and her husband Hank stumbled onto my website
somehow, found out about my trial, and are now at MD Anderson beginning
it! Hank, who has been in contact with my cousin Tom (who put the
website together) and with my Uncle Steve (who has walked this path
with me every step of the way) told us they were arriving at the
hospital last Monday and sent us a picture so we could be on the
lookout for them. So Monday morning
my mom and I arrive at the hospital, as we have for the past 10 weeks,
but that day my mom stumbled and a nice man rushed over to help us. In
all the commotion, I was thinking about how kind people are and thought
that was just how I pictured Hank and his wife Sally to be. Without
seeing this man's face,
I said, "Hank?" Sure enough, this nice man was Hank! And then came his
sweet wife Sally from down the hall. My uncle Steve was in town the
following day and finally got to meet Hank in person. Sally and Hank
live in Austin where Tom lives and used to live in Wilmette, where I
grew up. I was patient #6 in the trial and now Sally is patient #7.
Let's hope we've both stumbled onto a cure for an incurable type of cancer.
Love,
Jen
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