The doctor's visit and a little reflection

Our visit on Thursday went well. The doctor said that his lymph nodes are all normal size. His spleen is still enlarged but he said that the maintenance chemo should take care of that. The other cancer markers look good as well. It looks like the transplant did it's job. Dave gets his first doses of chemo on Tues, March 29th and Fri, April 1st. He decided to do two doses a week every other week. He will be on that schedule for a full year. We will see how things go. Hopefully he won't feel too tired or too sick.
Dave is still bald. He has some blond peach fuzz hairs starting to peek through. Our time at home is coming to a close. I have mixed feelings about getting back to REAL life. It has been a sweet time to be together as much as we have. Dave remains in good spirits. I overheard him telling someone on the phone the other day, "Man, I am lucky to have a stem-cell transplant so I can watch all of the March Madness games." I love that he considers himself lucky. We do feel so blessed for the doctors, medicine and treatment that he has received. We are also grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and his earthly angels that we have felt along the way.

We have made a lot of fond memories during our time together. One of our favorite times of the day is when we go sneek into the kids bedrooms before we go to bed. We love watching them sleep. There is an indescribable feeling of love, pride, gratitude, and joy staring at their faces. Ally and Brody take after their dad's sleeping positions and is usually curled up is a peaceful sleep. Grant is usually sprawled out across his bed with at least one extremity dangling off, he takes after me. Those night time moments make it all worth it.

As we get back to our new real life. I hope that we can remember to take with us the gratitude, compassion, and perspective that we have gained through this experience. We will never forget the kindness and love shown to us by family and friends.

We're Alive

We are healthy and happy. Sorry that I haven't posted for a little while. I have been working on a slide show of Dave's pictures and some of our favorite memories of the past year. I kept trying to get it on our blog but the music wouldn't work. So for those of you motivated enough you can paste the link and watch the slide show. Make sure your sound is on. I found a song for Dave that I liked even though I am not a country fan. It is a Kenny Chesney/Dave Matthew duet. The pictures are not in chronological order but the last picture is the most recent of Dave.

http://www.go2album.com/showAlbum/548623/dave-slideshow

We are doing well and enjoying our family time. This week Dave will get another full body PET scan to measure the tumors and see if they are smaller or gone. Also he will get his blood retested to check for any of the cancer markers. We will meet with the doctor on Thursday and get the results. Hopefully things check out well and then he will start his maintenance chemo. Then he will be getting 4 rounds of chemo a month for the next 12 months.

We are so grateful Dave is recovering so well. We are loving the warmer weather and spending time outside with some fresh air.