In the home stretch

It's been so long since I last blogged anything I had to go back and re-read my last post.  The delay was not caused by increased recovery due to our party January 15.  Although I will state that both 5-gallon homebrew kegs were drained that night.  That solved the dilemma of what to do with homebrew when we travel to Seattle.  I'm glad it was enjoyed by the 40+ people who were here that night, although I wouldn't have minded if they had left a little for me to have the last two weeks. 

The weather has been nice here in southern AZ lately.  It will be tough leaving now, thinking about the 100+ temperatures that will be here when we return in June.  But leave we will this Friday.  We spend four days on the road and are scheduled to arrive at SCCA February 8.  This week is a lot of packing and getting ready.

I haven't written much here lately because things have been remakably usual.  Ever since the last hospital visit early December Heidi has been healthy and happy.  She went through another round of semi-chemo two weeks ago for 7 days.  It was just out-patient treatment for one hour per day with a drug called Vidaza.  I didn't even go with her to the clinic, because it was so easy and low-key.  Vidaza is actually for Myodisplastic Syndrome, not Leukemia.  But Heidi had MDS previously before it transmuted into AML, so they decided it could help.  Actually, they decided she had gone too long without some kind of poison in her system.  Fortunately Vidaza is much milder than the hard-core leukemia drugs, so she seems to be without any symptoms.  No fevers, no fatigue, no transfusions.  Well, she did get a cold last week, but she's blaming me for that.  That's nothing compared to fevers, hair loss, rashes and sepsis.  Cold, hah!  Wimpy virus.  It ain't got a snot's chance in Hankyville of causing us any grief.

New Schedule for departure

Out at Blanco with Tom & Laura

Got a call from the transplant coordinator today with a new schedule.  Our first day at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance will be February 8.  That will be day 1 (depending on how you count days) of a four-month stint in Seattle.  The chosen donor, who matches 9 out of 10 matchy things (they have a technical term for it, but I'm trying not to get too techy on ya) doesn't live in this country.  That's right, international.  So on donation day, it will have to be flown in from wherever else in the world the person lives. 

They were hoping for a perfect 10/10 match.  But Heidi is, in the coordinators words, a little too unique on that tenth matchy thingy.  Those weren't all her words, but I'm trying not to get too techy on ya.

There is one trial associated with this treatment plan.  We need to research it and figure out what it's about.  No injected isotopes this time.  Heidi says I can't take my Geiger counter anymore.  Damn!

This Saturday is our Damn, we're not kicked out of our home to do more Chemo party.  We're amazed at how many people are coming.  From out of town, Tom & Laura are already here.  Fred & Lisa fly in tomorrow night.  Alex & Lis are driving down from the hippy end of the state (the part of the state that recently carried the medical marijuana vote).  Those of you who can't make it, don't worry, because we will definitely be doing another party after we return.  Well, not immediately after we return because that will be June.  We have close friends, but even they aren't devoted enough to visit us in Tucson in the summer. 

Matches Found!

2000 feet above Tucson in the Catalinas

We have a match!  That's right, your face and my butt.  Hahahaha, I haven't used that one for years.  Still funny, though, isn't it? 

They actually found several matches in the registry.  Thank you to everyone of you who registered or tried to register or talked someone else into registering or thought about it but drank beer instead or read this blog and became inspired anyway.  According to the letter from SCCA, they found multiple donors who are 9/10 match.  Perfect would be 10 out of 10, and of course they recognize that Heidi deserves nothing but a perfect 10.  I told them, though, that Heidi has no match since Cleopatra died.  But still, they want to continue searching anyway. 

We don't know know how long they'll keep searching before settling.  In the meantime we are in limbo waiting for marching orders.  "Hurry up and wait" is supposedly a slogan in the military.  Maybe the medical community is adapting that philosophy. 

In the mean-meantime, we might as well have a party.  This won't be as big a celebration as the post-treatment looking-forward party.  But it's a party nonetheless.  January 15 for those of you who haven't heard.  Homebrew, home lemon-drops, home s'mores.  At our home-home.

On the registry front, we have several more contestants.  Alex and Cody both signed up.  It's safe for them, of course, because they'll never be matched.  She's 1/4 Armenian and he's 1/2 Moses Lake.  Who would match either of them?  Nikki also revealed that she registered months ago.  Again, safe.  She is 1/4-Armenian and part Orange County.  Can't be many of them anywhere.  Perhaps I'm making too much of ethnic background.  Perhaps it's not my 1/2 armenian heritage that prevented me from being selected the past 15 years.  Perhaps it's true I have had no match ever since Superman retired.   Oh, boy, can't use that joke too many times.  Karen and Jami also registered.  And Megan too.  Who could forget Megan?  I didn't. Way to go, ladies!  And I was kidding about me not having a match anywhere in the world.  Ya see, back in the 70's they built this pipeline in Alaska . . .

Running on a brisk Arizona morning