Move along, there’s nothing to see here.

A few posts back, I said that there would surely be more regular updates. Yeah…..I was wrong. I’ll start with the actual health news.

We finally got all the results back from my bone marrow biopsy/aspiration and had long conversations with Dr. Sayegh here in Sacramento and Dr. Miklos at Stanford. The results indicate that there is only about 12-15% marrow involvement, in comparison to about 30% when we went for transplant last year in May. This means that there is less disease present in my bone marrow now than at the same time last year. Dr. Miklos thinks this is due to the total lymphoid irradiation I received as part of the transplant process.

Neither doc could conclude that we needed to move ahead with another transplant right now, even though we have a donor who is a perfect match. From a medical perspective, I’m fairly healthy except for that 12-15% disease presence. The only reason to move forward right now is to get it over with, and that’s not necessarily a good reason, given the risks involved. Both docs said they would support us if we decided to go for it again this year, but couldn’t say with confidence that we should. Through the last few months, Jen and I have been talking about the feeling of being in control of our lives and the contrasting reality that we really aren’t. As much as we want to be done with CLL and the next transplant, the truth is that we don’t feel like it’s the right time. We haven’t heard God telling us to go ahead, and we don’t want to take action without His direction. So, we are waiting until either we get that direction, or there is evidence of disease progression. Yes, disease progression could be that direction.

Other than that, we haven’t been up to much. I planted three trees in the yard, and have slowly been working to get the garage into a state of organization that would allow at least one car to be parked inside. At some point this summer I will build a shed in the side yard. Pictures to follow eventually.

We’re moved, but not settled.

We moved on April 12. New address is…..yeah, right, I’m going to put that online?!? Same phone number as before, though.

Thanks to everyone who helped out on that Saturday. With your assistance, the move was complete by 10:00 a.m., and the truck was returned by 11:00. Note that I said the move was complete. That means that all our stuff was taken from the old house to the new house. Nearly a month later, we are not finished unpacking. Here’s a little chronology of the last several weeks.

We got the keys to the new house on Tuesday, April 8. We knew we wanted to do some work before moving in, so we enlisted the help of a couple of Jen’s coworkers and a friend of ours from church. Which is not to say that coworkers aren’t friends, of course. First on the list: painting the dining area/family room. No offense to the previous owners, but it was painted a hideous color called “Velvety Merlot”.

After work on that Tuesday, we loaded up our vehicles with miscellaneous stuff and painting equipment and headed to the new house. Virginia and Vance (Jen’s coworker/friend and her husband) and Shelley (another co-worker/friend) were there to help with the painting. It actually went very well. I highly recommend applying a primer when painting over dark colors, and it helps to have the primer tinted with a little bit of the color you’re going to paint. Here are a few pictures of the painting process.

Jen getting busy with the primer:

Teamwork in action:

After looking at those pictures, you’re probably wondering, “What’s up with the two-tone paint?” The next order of business was to install a chair rail around the room. Erik K. gave me a hand with this job, and Sean V. loaned me his amazing compound sliding miter saw to make those corner joints easier. I also got to use my compressor and brad nailer for something other than filling up my tires and building speaker boxes.

I am so handy:

Todd and Erik, striking a pose, complete with red eyes:

Here is a photo of the finished product:

More to come over the next week or so, after I download some pictures and find time to type!

So much for regularity.

I honestly thought I would have something new to tell everyone by now, but I don’t. The full results from the last bone marrow biopsy on March 4 aren’t back yet, so I haven’t talked to Dr. Miklos about scheduling transplant #2 for this summer. More waiting, I guess.

In non-health news, we are scheduled to close escrow on our house on March 31, which is Monday. Technically, the 45-day escrow put us on April 1, but it didn’t seem like a good day for closing. Ha ha, April Fool!!! We’ll be moving in on April 12 after spending a few evenings painting and installing a chair rail in the dining/family room. As promised, pictures to follow.

In addition to packing, we’ve been keeping our house clean because we’ve been showing it to prospective tenants for the past three weeks. If any of you know someone who might be looking for a two bedroom, one bathroom Craftsman-style bungalow in beautiful East Sacramento, feel free to send them our way! Our lease ends on June 30, so if we don’t get a new tenant we’ll be paying a mortgage and rent. This would be less than ideal, for sure.

More regular updates?

It’s no longer the Christmas season, according to my calendar. There have been four holidays since New Year’s Day, for you non-government workers out there: MLK, Jr. Day, Valentine’s Day (even though it’s a Hallmark holiday), Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s birthday. I had three paid days off work, and used them well.

I traveled to North Carolina in January for an extended MLK weekend. My longtime friend Donnie moved there a few years ago, and we hadn’t seen each other since our respective weddings in April and May 2005. Even though we email back and forth several days a week and talk on the phone on occasion (we’re not teenage girls!), we were both looking forward to spending a few days together in person. In spite of some unforeseen events that happened that week and weekend, rain and snow, and me getting a cold, we managed to have a good time talking, hot tubbing, enjoying a cigar on the beach, watching the AFC and NFC championship games, and getting even more manly by putting together his new generator. Alas, I was traveling light that trip because of multiple connecting flights, so I have no pictures. It’s all in my mind, and there’s no cable that downloads that stuff to the computer (whew!).

Over the Super Bowl weekend, I joined a group of guys from church and drove to a cabin in the Kings Canyon area east of Fresno. In a nutshell, it’s extreme man camp–shotguns and clay pigeon shooting, snowmobiling, exploring in the Argo, red meat, beer, poker and other card games, reading woodworking magazines, etc. Good times.

Jen and I spent a few weekends driving around looking at houses. We’ve been thinking about buying our own place for a while, and the market here in Sacramento has been dropping steadily in the last 12-18 months. Some might even say it’s crashing! Regardless of how you classify the market, it’s an opportunity for those of us who were previously priced out of the market to take advantage of lower prices and lower interest rates. After looking at about 100 houses online, driving by about a third of those, and actually seeing the inside of maybe 15 of the ones we drove by, we finally decided to put an offer on one. After a few counter offers going back and forth, we are finally in escrow! This past week has been a little busy with the home inspection, chimney inspection, mold inspection, meetings with our agent and loan person, and lengthy discussions about finances and strategy (thanks, Dad!) At this point, we’re fairly confident that all will work out and we’ll be moving in early April. I’ll have pictures after we close and actually have the keys.

Last weekend, we drove to Palo Alto to meet with a lady who has tentatively offered to let us stay in her house when we do the transplant again. For those who don’t remember, we’re looking at going back to Stanford this summer for Transplant #2. Our generous hosts last year have had some things going on in their lives, and aren’t able to offer their house for us again this year. I must admit, we were really blessed to have that opportunity last year. The reality is that a situation like that isn’t common. Our meeting this past weekend was pleasant, and we are waiting to hear back about whether this housing situation will work.

I also started the referral process to get back to Stanford. A brief recap: Dr. Miklos wants to do two or three rounds of chemotherapy before I come to Stanford for transplant. The chemo will suppress my immune system, which wasn’t as suppressed as it could have been last time. Each round of chemo requires about three or four weeks in between. In order to go to Stanford in early summer, I’ll need to start chemo in the next month or so. Dr. Miklos also wants to do another bone marrow biopsy to “test for CLL with a very sensitive PCR test that we developed for you as part of the protocol”. He is surprised that my white blood cell counts have remained as low as they are (still below normal level). I’m scheduled to do that on March 4. The results of the biopsy will determine a new baseline disease level and may influence the approach the doctors take in treatment this time. All of this means that I’ll be posting more often as more information becomes available.

Here are a couple of specific prayer requests:
1. Housing at Stanford - We need to find suitable housing, just like last year. We are waiting to hear back from the lady we met with last weekend. If that doesn’t work out, we’re still looking.
2. House purchase here - Our lease ends at the end of June. If our purchase works out, we need to get out of our lease to avoid paying rent and a mortgage. In order to do that, someone needs to rent our current house.
3. Wisdom for the doctors at Stanford to determine a course of treatment.
4. Preparation on our part for the transplant - spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically.

Merry Christmas!

Here’s that picture I was telling you about…

Nothing much new since last week, though I will say that Eric B. had a great sermon on Sunday, the last of the 10-point Service series.