August 16 Report

Gratitude:  Thanks so much to everyone for your blog comments, emails, text messages, phone calls and cards.  It’s not possible for us to respond to all your messages individually right now, but contact with all of you is a life line.   It’s humbling.  We never cease to be amazed at how supportive our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors are.  You are our community in the truest sense of the word.

The Health Update:  Roger completed a round of chemo today – 7 treatments in all.    We are fortunate that he hasn’t experienced much nausea this time.  His energy is a little low, but he can eat whatever he wants, he has a good appetite and feels pretty well.  His blood counts are monitored every day.   In a few days they’ll decide whether to do a second round of chemo or not.  In two weeks he’ll have another bone marrow biopsy to see how many leukemia cells are there.  It has been decided that we will need to meet Roger’s brother Bob in Salt Lake City in a few weeks for an infusion of those much-needed T-cells.  The treatment is not scheduled yet, but there is agreement among Roger’s doctors that the sooner it can be done, the better.  So we almost have a plan.

The Routine:  I am working every day (it’s the busiest time of year at the university), trying to accompany Roger to his appointments when it seems like there might be information forthcoming, and trying to bank a little sick time so that I can go to Salt Lake City with him a few weeks from now.  Roger spends the majority of his time having chemo treatments in the morning and transfusions in the afternoon, interspersed with meetings with two doctors.  He’s also consulting on a few communications projects and creating beautiful watercolor paintings in his “spare” time.   Life is incredibly busy.

The Insanity:  Many people have expressed concern about how we’re dealing with the stress.  It’s fair to say our anxiety is proportional to the situation.  And yet, we are holding together.  There is real work that we must do every day; we don’t have time to worry about maintaining a well-balanced life.  Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?  Physical health comes first, mental health comes later.  When life slows down a little bit, we’ll schedule a nervous breakdown, get a massage and have a good cry.

Stay Tuned.  News updates will be posted every few days.  There will not be film at 11, but stay tuned anyway.  We like having you in our lives.