Happy New Year 1/18/08

Happy New Year!

It is so hard to believe the holidays have come and gone already. We are now Illinois residents again and all we can say is….. Brrrrrrr! It is very cold here!!!

We have found a Doctor Team that will consist of Dr. Michael Maitland of the University of Chicago (who will manage the big picture) and Dr. Baharmand, a local oncologist from Naperville, IL, for the day to day/week to week execution of the plan.

Christmas was nice. My parents and Amy’s brother Mike were in town to celebrate Christ’s birth with us and we had a nice time together. This was also the first year the girls really got into the whole Santa Clause, gifts thing. They left cookies and a note for Santa and were very excited the next day when they were eaten and found a note back from him!

New Years Eve was also nice. We went to our good friends, the Bonham’s, who had invited all of the rest of our friends for a combo New Year’s Eve party and Good Bye party for us. We already miss everyone terribly…

After that, I flew to Chicago with Chloe, Amanda, and my mom on January 2nd and Amy drove up with Evan and her mom two days later, after supervising the movers’ packing up of our old house. We arrived to 0 deg. temperatures and 4” of snow!

Unfortunately, since I have been in Illinois, I have suffered some serious discomfort in my back and hips that I have attributed to me not being used to the cold; I simply ache like an old man… One day I couldn’t even get out of bed despite popping break thru pain pills like candy… A switch to Aleve, surprisingly enough, took away all the pain and I have not had to take any additional pain pills since. I am doing much better on the discomfort front.

I had also really held out strong hopes to get a break from chemo, but the doctors feel that the bone pain I have experienced here is symptomatic of the disease remaining active and that we need to hit it back again. There is no real choice but to suck it up, pull up the boot straps, and get moving.

So… I do start chemo therapy back up again today (Friday the 18th). I will be taking only one drug this time, a drug called Alimta. My understanding is that it is a well-tolerated therapy and I am hoping the side effects will be less than what I have experienced in the past. The “fun” part is that chemo hits different people different ways and even differently on different days, so I get the weekend to see how it goes. I march on…

Work is going well. There is a LOT to do to clean things up there, but that is exciting, getting to fix things. I just need to balance my effort there, especially how frequently I physically go to the office vs. work from home. I think I will burn out if I don’t.

Please pray for me that the chemo will go well and that I can be productive at work.