Day 181

Hello,

Well, only one day late but, we have completed the last intrathecal MTX treatment of course 3 and hopefully, forever!! Things went pretty good today and Rita has handled everything like a storm trooper. She has even walked the hallway today - once for 7 laps and once for 9 laps!! While this was delayed due to all of the complications that we experienced last week, we feel really positive that we are back on track and are looking forward to being able to go back to the hotel on Thursday. It will be important for Rita to get back to an environment where she can eat good and sleep good. We haven't had much sleep for the past three days because they keep pumping fluids into Rita and then she has to go to the bathroom to get rid of them. She has had to go at least once every hour for the past three days. In addition to that, they keep coming into the room every few minutes to see if there is a spider or something in the corner, but we think its just to make sure we don't fall asleep!!

So, we are getting close to the end of course three. That means that stem cell transplant is the next step. It is hard to believe that we have come so far and that now, we are on the doorstep of the last critical step. Please keep Rita in your prayers as you have throughout this process. This is our best chance at a cure and we can use all of the help we can get. Hoefully, we will get home for a few days before we start the stem cell transplant. Rita will be trying to recover and gain strength which means that she may need to rest quite a bit so, please, be sure to call before coming over to see how she is feeling.

So, all in all, course 3 has been OK, if it wasn't for the blotched intrathecal last week that started all of the problems/complications. That really started a cascade of events and set Rita back quite a bit. We are hopeful that we won't run into any of these problems this week and that we can get through this with nominal outcomes.

Goodnight for now - Take Care, Dave & Rita.