Thanksgiving Blessings

My family has set a tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving together the Saturday before the real holiday. It's nice not to worry about conflicts with the other side of our family and to have a reason to get together with my family. This year was a little bit different than previous years because one cousin gave birth to a young boy a few weeks ago, another cousin gave birth to a little girl on Wednesday (see me holding Audrie at left), my Grandmother had surgery on Thursday, and my husband is in the hospital recovering from chemotherapy. Nevertheless, several of us gathered and discovered that one of the things we are most thankful for is to be a part of the same family. As many of you will likely be spending time with family this holiday, I hope that you find as much joy in spending time with your family as I find spending time with mine.

Tyler continues to fight throat pain, but we are hoping that this week wil begin the slow climb up. Tyler essentially has no blood making ability right now. He's got no white blood cells, almost no platelets or red blood cells. He's been getting transfusions each day to get his platelets and red blood cell levels up to a minimal level. The doctor says that a typical patient might start getting better on about Day 17 after the start of this induction therapy. We are currently at Day 11, so I am hoping to see some improvement over this next week.

He is scheduled for both a bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture on Tuesday. If those tests show that the first round of cytarabine had a good result, than they will likely continue with one more round of this induction therapy before proceeding to transplant in January. While I do not wish another round of this chemo and mucositis on Tyler, I do hope that we have finally found the right treatment path to get Tyler healthy again.

Tyler and I thank all of the many hands that have helped us keep our lives going, the many friends who send e-mails and comments to encourage and comfort us, and we wish you the best of holidays!

Mandy