Back at Hopkins

Last week (June 7-11), I returned to Johns Hopkins. Matt was attending Lacrosse Camp with several members of his high school team and it provided an excuse for me to visit some good friends.

It was less weird on me than on those I visited or saw accidentally. After dropping the boys off at camp I headed over to the hospital and went to Mass in the Marburg conference room as Trish and I did often when she was in the hospital. Fr. Paul recognized me immediately and ran over to greet me and chat before beginning Mass. While we were talking Dr. Bolanos-Meade walked in and upon seeing me turned white. We were both surprised to see each other -- he apparently more so than me. When he is the attending on the bone marrow ward, he always attends Sunday mass. After Mass, I made a point to thank him, we never really did.

The next day I had lunch with two of the many nurses that became good friends over the two years. Holly, who had Trish on her first night after starting chemo in October 2005 and Vanessa who had Trish every weekend after her transplant. It was a great visit and these two get it. They wanted to see me as much as I wanted to see them. They weren't scared or worried about seeing me. They wanted to know that I and the boys were ok. Holly took a picture and hopefully she will send it to me this week and I'll post it. Say a pray for Holly's family she had to rush back to Louisiana for family stuff right after we met.

On Tuesday, thanks to a tip from Holly. I was able to meet with some friends. Woody and his Mom. Woody was celebrating his "graduation" from IPOP to the outpatient center. He has had a long round of chemo and appears to be doing well. It was great to see them and all of the other nurses in IPOP and on the floor that day. I also got to see Dr. Griffiths without whom I think the last two years would have been so much tougher on Trish and I. She was our super hero.

Well I guess if I needed "closure" (whatever that really means) I got it. I think more importantly, I got to visit with some really good friends who meant a lot to Trish and I while we struggled with an incredibly tough time.

Time marches on for all...When we arrived at Hopkins in October 2005, their new building was still a parking garage. We watched it get demolished. We watched them dig the hole in the ground for the new buildings and start the base of the structure. In the 6-8 months since we left the skeleton of the building as risen to its complete height. See the pictures below....

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Andy's Graduation

Andy and his cousin Kristi graduated this past Sunday from Nova High School. Andy completed his high school year with impressive credentials. He was captain of the Lacrosse team, a debate team captain, and received recognition cords for service (over 250 hours), National Honor Society, GPA in the top 10% of his class (over a 3.75 or better, his was better), all of this while completing a tough senior year schedule of mostly AP classes. In fact he received the second highest recognition for AP scholars as he consistently received a 4 or better on his AP tests (scale of 1-5). Whew, don't mean to brag, but his Mom would have been proud. It's been a stressful few years, but he crossed his own finish line and did it well, despite the challenges we have faced as a family these last few years.

Some pictures, not all very good, but hard to shoot with a big zoom lens in an auditorium.....
We had a great dinner at Ruth Chris' steak house afterwards....

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