Overwhelmed

Our friend Erika lost her very long battle with Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma on Tuesday. We have lost one of our closest and dearest friends and our lives will never be quite the same without her. Services are being held on Saturday morning so Adrienne and I are flying back to the Bay Area tomorrow. Funerals are never fun and, besides the day of my dad's funeral, I'm sure this will be one of the hardest days of our lives.

The last week or so has been stressful to say the least. Adrienne was quite distraught on Sunday as her itching got much worse and she's concerned that her disease is growing too quickly. She took some Benadryl, which helps the symptoms but makes her sleep. The last couple of days are better but she's having a challenge keeping up with her studies with so much going on. A week from today she has scans to see how things are going. In the meantime, the only thing to do is keep taking the valproic acid and try to not worry too much.

Adrienne had hoped to go abroad to Prague next fall, but with this most recent relapse, she changed her mind. She didn't want to get her hopes up and then have to cancel her plans at the last minute. Instead, she decided last week to apply as a visiting student at Columbia University next fall. That way, she can live in New York for about seven months (her dream) while getting treatment with Dr. O'Connor. This seems like a great idea and CMC will pay her scholarship to Columbia. Now she just needs to finish the applications to CMC and Columbia and wait (we sure hate that waiting game).