Happy Birthday

Today is Adrienne's 20th birthday! There have been times over the last few years when we didn't think she would see this day and we are so thankful that she's able to have this big milestone. I believe more than ever that she'll live a long life and that a cure is just around the corner. I have always known that about 1,000+ people die each year from Hodgkin's Lymphoma in this country but I hadn't thought about the fact that three people die each day of this supposedly curable disease, a sobering thought.

Adrienne and I will fly back to New York this Monday. Her boss has generously offered their apartment so we'll be staying there. We thought Adrienne would move to the dorms at Columbia on August 27 but we found out last Thursday that she won't move in until August 30. I may stay for a few extra days so she can have scans and move in. I don't want her to be alone for the scan, and more importantly, for the results.

We had a little scare this week. Adrienne was feeling some wheezing in New York, which she didn't mention to her doctor and which worsened when she arrived here in Nevada. We were worried that her disease had grown significantly but a chest xray on Tuesday was fairly stable. There's an area above the tumor that looked a bit abnormal but no one was sure why. Since then, the wheezing has stopped and we know that the tumor is about the same size so we'll wait for the upcoming scans to get more information on what's going on. Adrienne's counts were really good so we are happy for that though it was a bit sobering to see the tumor plain as day on the xray.

There's a young man named Morgan Phillips who did a video log (http://www.morganphillips.com/cancer.html) of his treatment for Hodgkin's. He's quite a funny guy so you might want to take some time to watch his clips. They are around 2 minutes each so it doesn't take long to view all of them. Don't worry, it made Adrienne crack up.