Friday Update

When I arrived this afternoon, Trish was sleeping. She had some nausea this morning -- nothing as bad as it has been up to this point, but they had given her Attivan which translates into an instant nap time. She was very awake when I spoke to her earlier in the day from Aunt Mary's and is more awake now. She did 20 laps this morning. You may recall that 26 laps around the nurses station is a mile. She is well on her way to reclaiming her title of "lap queen" of the 5th floor.

Her attitude has been good. The chemo still hasn't made her feel really bad yet, but we know that that will change soon. She has one more day of busulfan and than the cytoxan starts on Sunday. Busulfan was invented here at Johns Hopkins about 40 years ago. While the goal of every chemo past has been to knock out her bone marrow so that it could come back clean. The goal now is to knock out her bone marrow so it won't come back.

So the doses and the stakes are higher.

If you have been thinking about calling her -- there is no time like the present. She should be up to calls this weekend. But may not feel up to talking at the start of next week.

Our boys fly up tomorrow morning with their friend Eli. After picking them up we'll stop at the hospital for a visit. Most of the day I will spend entertaining the boys before dropping them off at Hopkins Lacrosse camp. They will spend most of next week at the camp, than stay to visit before heading home.

CBS News did a story on bone marrow donations the other night and I was able to answer some questions for the folks on their web site. If you saw the piece, the donation method they showed, is not what Trish's donor will be doing. He will actually go under general anesthesia and have the bone marrow harvested in much the same way Trish is biopsied. A needle into the hip bone. He'll likely be sore for a few days to a few weeks.

Please keep the prayers and good cheer coming! Thanks to all those back home working on fundraisers.