Thursday, July 27, 2006

Doing Well, Waiting for Scans

Adrienne seems to be doing very well. On Tuesday, she flew off to St. Louis to see her best friend from college. She's having a really good time so far. She returns on August 5 and then we're off to Stanford on August 10 for a PET/CT and checkup. As you can imagine, these scans always make us nervous and the whole experience is a roller coaster. She had clear scans last November and new pain in March with a recurrence. We feel like we get a little reprieve but never a break, and there's always something to worry about. We are lucky that her cancer has grown slower since her allo transplant because that has given us time to find treatments that work. Sometimes it's hard to imagine that Adrienne has had cancer for more than half her young life. This December will be 10 years since her original diagnosis and she had symptoms for over a year before that.

The move is going well but there's never enough time to do what needs to be done each day. It seems that everytime we fix one problem, another one arises. The movers left marks on the new carpet, the painters messed up the draperies, and we still don't have TV. It will probably be a few weeks before we are truly moved in. :o) Otherwise, we love the house and hope to make it feel like a home very soon.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

We're Home, Almost

We got back from Spain last night after a VERY long day of travel. We had many hours on the plane and a five hour layover in Miami. We're pretty exhausted today but there's much to be done, so sleeping in is out of the question.

The trip was great. We started in Madrid for a few days to get over jetlag, eat tapas, and do a bit of sightseeing. Then we were off to Segovia to see the ancient Roman acqueduct and try the suckling pig (Adrienne, not me). After that, we went to Salamanca, a beautiful city with a large, very busy Plaza Mayor. After a night in the medevil city of Trujillo, we went to Seville for 4 days. Wow, was it hot there but we had a great visit to Jerez to see the Andalusian horse show and a wonderful night of Flamenco, along with lots of sightseeing and some shopping for good measure. Then we were back to Madrid for our trip home. We all had a great time.

Now we're back to business with the move. The house is being painted and new carpet goes in tomorrow. We actually move in on Friday. Today, we were supposed to get phones, DSL, and satellite TV. I suppose one out of three (phones) isn't too bad. I guess it's all just par for the course and everything will get sorted out in time.

Adrienne is doing very well and was able to keep up during the trip. She still has some hip pain but hopefully this will resolve soon. Her skin was quite irritated and painful from the radiation but it is peeling now and feeling much better. Overall, we're very pleased.