Update and Happy Mother's Day

Happy Weekend All:

For all my lamenting about 'forced retirement', I am happy for the weekends as well. The outpatient clinic does what they can to give patients the weekend 'off' and I am no exception. But during the week I am trying to work what hours I can and still make the trip to Hopkins a minimum of three times per week. I usually get to Hopkins by 10:00 or a little after for my 10:30 appointment. This requires me to leave my house by about 8:30. I drive to my parent's house in Silver Spring and they take me (by rule I have to be driven to Hopkins) the rest of the way. Typically I am not home until 5:00 or even later. Last night I didn't get home until closer to 8:00 but that was partly because I was leaving Hopkins around my family's dinner time so my parents and I did carry-out at their place before I drove the rest of the way home. This being a patient is at least a close to a full time job in, and of, itself. So I like the weekends too, where I can 'relax'.

So, I have already helped Nolan with a big chunk of major biographical report this morning, started the laundry focusing on the loads that will ensure that Nolan's uniform is ready for tomorrow's baseball game, done some minor plumbing by replacing the flusher handle (nothing with the 'dirty' part of the toilet, though some might argue any part of the toilet is perhaps too dirty for someone with no immune system to touch), and with Audrey's help have started picking up around the house to get it ready for the little Mother's Day shindig that we'll have here around Nolan's baseball game. I'm taking a quick breather as the last bits of my antibiotics drip through my catheter and figured I'm make a quick post.

The rest of this afternoon I will continue to clean and do laundry. I'll also pay the bills and do some work wiping clean the hard drive on a computer that we intend to donate to Audrey and Nolan's school. I am limited in how I can help, but truly, this level of activity is 'relaxing' to me. While on the face it sounds nice to lounge around in bed or in a recliner all day, at Hopkins it is by no means relaxing and sometimes it can be downright tiring.

Just a quick update on the search for a bone marrow donor. I believe that when I last posted on this topic I indicated that a very promising number of 10-out-of-10 matches had been found. The second, more detailed level of genetic matching is well underway on those candidates and there has been some good news. At least one of those matches has been determined to be a hematological twin to me. It wasn't really presented that way to me, of course, but from what I can understand it seems like this one individual matches in every way that the doctor's could hope for. It also sounded at the time that there could be a couple of other such 'twins' but that they were a day or two away from having those confirmed as well. Needless to say it is a relief that we're now talking about rank ordering matches instead of wondering if such matches are out there. My understanding is that the process of actually contacting these donors to see if they are available and still eligible to donate has begun or will begin soon. The doctors continue to keep the transplant options open. The choice among the options depend on several factors including when my counts return (also a determinant on if/when I return to Hopkins as an in-patient for a second round of chemo), the presence or absence of leukemia, and the final speed and success with which the Match-Unrelated Donorship (MUD) can be arranged.

Finally, I'd like to say Happy Mother's Day to the Moms. Of particular note (since this is MY forum) I'd like to single out my mom, Linda French; my wife and the mother of my kids, Marla French; my mother-in-law, Lannie Potts; my cousin and brand new mom, Jennifer Brown; and my grandmother, Geraldine Shelley. And given the subject matter of this blog I feel compelled to extend the same warm wishes to some other "mothers" (not actually my mother, but in some cases mothers of others--I just finished reading a Dr. Seuss book with Audrey!) who have been pretty regular in checking in and/or sending well wishes. They include: coworkers Gloria Loudermilk and Marie Slaughter (and the rest of the SPS Office), Jan Pallas Dudley (and the rest of the Recruitment Services group), Venitia Lamour (and the cancer support group at work that I haven't gotten a chance to meet with!), and Ronie Nieva (fellow Hopkins goer and blogger), Terri Annis, Martha Berlin, and Robin Stearn (and the rest of the Field HR team); friends Wendy Bailey, Denise Conway, Stephanie Reeve, and Michele Allan for keeping Marla sane and for pitching in, the moms of the baseball team for their support of the team and for the support they've shown me, and the many "moms" that have checked in from Ascension (Angela Hight-Walker and Sue Stief come to mind, Reverand Randy: do you mind being a mom?), Hughes (Rebecca Olmstead, certainly), Candlewood (Mrs. Bednar, Ornstein, Russell, Stayeas, and Zador for their support of Nolan and Audrey), and the many "moms" that support Marla daily at Human Genome Sciences, many of whom I have met a few times but couldn't reliably be counted on to come up with all the names.

Happy Mother's Day, and as always, thanks for reading.

--Russ.