Did you just grab my butt wattle?

Saturday, July 1st, 2017
Baltimore, Maryland

She did!

​"Did you just grab my butt wattle?" That's what I asked of Alison on Thursday after we had stepped into the elevator at the Weinberg Building to descend into the parking garage. She had put her arm around my waist and then it slowly slipped down to my butt. As I've mentioned recently, my weight loss applies down there, too. One of the cruel side effects of weight loss is that your skin doesn't necessarily return to pre-weight-loss dimensions. In my case, the weight loss has left behind an unfortunate wattle that Alison has taken to fondling. What's up with that?

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Health update

We were supposed to go back to Johns Hopkins next week for a CT scan to check on the progress of my chemotherapy. But, as we happened to be here in Baltimore this past week (I needed a platelet transfusion as a "booster") my doctors decided to take the opportunity to perform that followup scan sooner.

The results could have been better: my diseased spleen remains unchanged since before chemotherapy started, except for a handful of slightly smaller nodes. But, since my particular type of lymphoma was categorized as aggressive, I'll take it as a positive sign that the spleen didn't keep getting larger. The next question becomes whether the chemotherapy fared better against the disease in my bone marrow. The only way to find out is to perform a followup bone marrow biopsy. We will do that this Wednesday, July 5th and the results will take a week to be returned.

The treatment calculus is this: if the bone marrow is clear of disease (good) then we will decide what to do with my spleen, since it is harboring the bulk of the disease. If the bone marrow is not clear of disease (bad), then we will start over with a different chemotherapy regimen. The odds of success down that path, however, are admittedly greatly reduced. Let's hope we avoid that path.

On the positive side, I've felt great for the last five days, better than I have for months. We walked to a local cafe for breakfast this morning and will head out shortly for a trip to Barnes and Noble. A small slice of normal life...

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Remembering Nanny

Alison's mom passed away three years ago today. With two dates to remember someone by, the day one is born and the day one passes, it's always been unclear to me whether one spends each day reminiscing with happiness or sadness. Alison and I plan to focus both days on fond, happy memories.

​Nanny was a good egg. We miss her.

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Pictures