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Hello, all. Hope you’re having a great weekend! Not a whole lot to report for the last few days. Still no side effects from the chemo!! C continues to feel great. He’s ramped up his exercise schedule. He disconnects from work to do some form of exercise every two hours. I swear he is walking faster now than he does in our normal life! Hadn’t thought about that until just now. Perhaps it’s symbolic of the undeterred mission he is on.

In other news, he’s determined that he can make the hamster wheel a bit more interesting. With few options at his disposal, he reverses course (it’s a circle, clockwise or counterclockwise are the options🥴), he listens to music, he chats up the ladies 😜....He’s doing 2 miles now and 20 minutes on the recumbent bike. Next up - resistance bands!

The other night we decided to stay home and just take a stroll in the neighborhood. It was a beautiful night.......This is our humor now. Quarantine humor. “Hey babe, it’s been a long week. Wanna just stay in?”. 

Anyway, I digress. The point was while on our stroll we were discussing if he wanted some addt’l “lounge” pants, specifically some I’d seen in blue. After a moment of obvious contemplation, he said we needed to “maybe get a few more shirts too”. And then listed colors. It took me a minute to realize he was working out the color combos in his head! 

Me: Are you coordinating PICC shirts with lounge pants? 😳

C: Well, there’s no reason not to still dress well.

That’s my guy!!! Next he’ll be rethinking his slipper lineup.

***He has his next bone marrow biopsy tomorrow (Monday 25th) which evaluates the efficacy of the chemo and determines our next move. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers this evening that the marrow is devoid of any abnormal cells. We should have those results Tuesday or Wednesday.

In closing, we thought we’d highlight a few of the notes/cards he received this week. They were all so lovely and so appreciated, but a few stood out. They include an awesome photo of the CIC team (the photoshopped piece is hilarious 😂), a really encouraging one about friendship (might take you a moment with this particular friends penmanship 🧐), an artful Rated R for language, but motivating message, an especially wonderful interpretation of us through the eyes of a child 🤩, and lastly one from another patient here in the transplant unit.

The patient here is 10 years old. He has 3 younger siblings at home in Midlothian. His parents divide and conquer. His mother stays here with him and isn’t able to see her other children due to potential germ risk. He underwent a bone marrow transplant 10 days ago and hadn’t been eating. We were able to get something ridiculously inconsequential that helped him. This is the card we received from him that evening (See below). Despite the litany of procedures and side effects this child has endured, not to mention not being able to live like a regular 10-year old, he not only wrote the thank you, he focused on the well-being of another. Perspective. Is. A. Choice. ❤️

Hope this finds you all well,

C & A