Day + 106

Today, I present to you a photo of Joe and his college roommate Jim. It was taken on our wedding day. Jim is really tall. And not that it matters, but that isn't what he wore to the wedding. Jim was just making sure he was in the right place. Speaking of Jim, Joe got a call from him four days into the Marrow Trek. Jim and Jesse are doing well, although they are starting to get some blisters on their feet. When Joe heard from them, they still had a good 3,000 miles to go...but they are still super excited. Now the dogs...they are excited too, but they are also falling asleep every time Jim and Jesse pause for more than half a second. The trail and the heat may be a bit much for them, so the dogs are going home for now. Meanwhile, Jim and Jesse seem to be collecting some crazy stories...already. Like having a small town librarian call the cops on them. You would be nervous too if two big guys with four days of chin stubble, who smelled like they had been hiking and sweating for a hundred miles in warm weather were sitting in your library. Fortunately, the cops were very kind...

Joe is doing very well. Monday's blood draw showed that he is now CMV negative. YAY!!!!!!! This means just one more dose of Cidofovir, which will take place next week. The down side is that Joe's WBC is still very low (yup, he had another filgrastim injection). Yesterday, Joe had bone marrow biopsy #7 to ensure that everything is as it should be in his marrow. We are praying hard that the results are good. Joe has been feeling a bit better each day now so it only makes sense that everything else follows. Amazingly enough, Joe had his biopsy without any morphine. Is he brave? Is he crazy? Is he stupid? Maybe a bit of all three? I don't know. But the fortunate thing is that the nurse practitioner who did the biopsy did a wonderful job. Out of the six different people who have had the privilege of doing a bone marrow biopsy on Joe, she ranked in the top two...oh, but one of the six was eliminated from the ranking since morphine was involved. :)

Another thing is that the Mepron (the yellow paint stuff) and Joe's stomach just were not agreeing. Joe has lost a lot of sleep in the last couple weeks because the Mepron has caused a lot of discomfort and rumbling and such. So...Joe is going back to the monthly Pentamidine. We are trusting that the techs who administer it are fully aware of the proper methods now. Please pray that this is true!

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Thank you Sheena for bringing us food. It was all so yummy. You better be eating well too!!!!!

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
~Psalm 103:2-4