Day 211 - BMT 1

I bet you were hoping that I would have more to say - I hit the wrong key. Sorry!

As you can see by the BMT 1, we are now in positive territory. After all of the prepartion, we are finally in the home stretch. Our eyes are wide open and we know that there are potential bumps ahead of us but, we feel that Rita has demonstrated that she can and will handle them. I promise that I will do everything I can do to help her through the tough times and encourage her until she can once again gain control of her life. I can't wait until the day she jumps in the car and waves goodbye as she and Sherry head out on one of their shopping trips. It won't be long now.

Rita is feeling a little tired today which is to be expected. We are now entering the phase where her counts will go way down and her body will begin the battle with the new stem cells. As it has been explained to us, her new cells will recognize her body as foriegn and her body will recognize the new stem cells as foriegn so there will be a struggle to destroy each other. They have medicine to control this and will manage it so that there is a gradule "transfer of power" so to speak from her old system to her new system. That will be the main focus of the next few week and possibly months. Each person responds differently to this so we will have to wait, watch and see how Rita does. I am confident she will continue to be a superstar!!

We have walked over one mile today (35 laps) and are going back out for a walk in a little while (Rita wants to be sure to be back in time for Idol)so, as you can see - eventhough Rita is not feeling the best, she is still determined to give it her all. I am so proud and impressed with her dertermination. I know that this is what winners are made of - and Rita will win this battle.

So, Goodnight for now - God Bless, Dave & Rita