HOMEWARD BOUND!

YES! Dr. Romaguera gave us an okay to head eastward and be home for Christmas. The Doc started to talk to us about being readmitted to MDACC for the next round of treatment and we reminded him that Joe was scheduled for part B chemo at Emory Winship Cancer Institute under Dr. Elliott Winton. I tried my best to be all ears to everything Romaguera had to say but it can be overwhelming. It was. Joe was very quiet on our drive over to MDACC and I had asked him what was wrong and if he was OK. Joe kept saying he was "fine" which really meant to me that he was not but he wasn't talking. The Fast Tracking Blood draw was at 7:45 AM with the visit with Romaguera at 9:00AM which is not normally on time since there is always a wait for the blood results. His wonderful nurse, Goley Richardson, asked all the medical questions including what happened Friday night. Before she left the room I gave her a thank you card and a gift certificate since we valued her care and expertise so much over the last two trying months. Goley could sense we were antsy since we were anxious to get Romaguera's blessing to go home to Atlanta for Christmas. I could sense that Romaguera was not totally sold on us going back to Atlanta which is purely my instinct. He told us that Joe should continue to take the antibiotics for his sinus infection for the full ten days and that he should not start the next round of part B chemo until he was 90% better since part B is rough but he knew that Joe did great on it. Romaguera stated that Joe did much better than he ever expected which pleased him. We looked at the brain CT scans carefully together. We did both see the meningioma benign small brain tumor on the outside covering of the brain which Joe has had for twenty years. It comes and goes but the rest of the CT brain scan was good. We then looked at the body CT scan where Romaguera pointed out that the lymphoma growths had shrunk but they were not big to begin with. All of the blood results were not in yet but the doc said the counts were stable on the red cells. Joe's platelets were 144 which is still in the normal range. Joe's spleen was measured at 17.5 cm which was way down from 30 cm when it all started. Romaguera felt that the spleen was still enlarged but he believed it was from Joe's other incurable disease, myelofibrosis (MF). We had been praying that the chemo would have made a difference on the MF but we will not truly know until the bone marrow biopsies are read by pathology which will not be completed until next Monday. Dr R stated that Joe needed to be careful about a spleen rupture since that would be life threatening. With the MF scarring the bone marrow, the marrow is not producing the white blood cells as it should so the spleen is doing the work of the marrow thus making it large. He stated that the spleen could go up and down in size during the treatment since the white blood cells will go up and down in numbers.  He also stated that a person could live without a spleen but how would that effect Joe since the spleen is doing the work of the bone marrow. If that were to happen, we will cross that bridge at that time. Romaguera told us that if he saw anything out of whack on any of the tests that he would call us this afternoon. He recommended that we go down to the Film Library and order a CD of his scans to take to Dr. Winton on our appointment on Thursday. Dr. Romaguera said he was going to write a letter and fax it to Dr. Winton about holding off the chemo on Thursday until Joe is 90% over the sinusitis. It gives us piece of mind that both of the doctors has an open line of communication. Romaguera wants us to come back to MDA for the same round of tests after every two rounds of chemo which is fine with us. Joe and I were very quiet as we left his office getting our mind and spirits in gear.

We stopped at the Film Library and put our name on the list for the CD to be done. Joe stated he had to go to the restroom and threw the box of Kleenex and calendar at me. I gave a "I do not believe it look" when another lady in the waiting room started to laugh since she saw it all happen. It was a bit strange. While Joe was gone, they called our name and I completed the request. We will pick the CD at 10AM on our way out of Houston on Tuesday.



When I got back to the hotel, I started to do the laundry to get ready to pack for our trip back to Atlanta. Joe walked back in at Noon as if nothing had happened. He asked me what he could do. I told him that he could apologize but only if it was sincere. He still hasn't. Yes, my feelings are still hurt. I will get over it eventually.

For the next two hours we gathered everything together and packed as well as organizing everything. Yesterday someone had sideswiped my car on the driver's side so Joe went out there to see if he could wax it out. He came back about 15 minutes ago stating that he was able to get rid of most of it where it was no longer noticeable. Joe is great about that kind of stuff.

Oh, I wanted to tell you about our experience at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church. We got there at about 10:30 AM to get a decent parking spot in the mammoth parking garage and followed the crowd as to where to go. The building is huge. As we entered the building atrium, joyful upbeat happy Christmas Carols were loudly playing making it a grand welcoming entrance. It was like arriving to Phillips Arena with so many entrance doors and levels. We went up the escalator to the second level which was just above the floor. The stage was huge with a "V" like display with the 100 member chorus on both sides of the V. In the middle of the bottom back of the V was a powerful gifted 9 member band. There were 9 featured singers on the main stage who sang upbeat rocking Christian music where the words where shown on the various huge screens around the stadium. Lights, color and action....it felt like we were at a "happening" concert. People were swaying and clapping with the music as they stood. It was a massive stadium with four levels. It was not 100% filled. I am betting there was seating for 10 to 15 thousand people. The people on stage and singing all had bright happy smiles and into their zones. After about 20 minutes of music and singing, Joel welcomed the people with much thanks to those who were visiting for the first time. I would say that 30% of the crowd was first time visitors. Osteen stated that after a person came three times that they considered you as a member. He was very personable and gave positive energy with emphasis on the goodness and greatness of God and Jesus. His wife, Victoria, also spoke and was very pretty and dressed to the nines. Joel did  not give his sermon until about an hour after it all started. His sermon was meaningful to me with him telling about the oyster and a grain of sand. The sand is an irritation to the oyster who keeps trying to expel it. As it does this, a layer upon layer falls upon the grain of sand. Life is full of all kinds of irritations such as a bad marriage, unruly children, difficult bosses and colleagues, illness, family disputes and bad habits. God keeps putting these irritations in our way for us to change into a better human being instead of us trying to change the other person. He will keep putting these challenges in our way until we change and we will eventually turn into a beautiful pearl like the grain of sand in the oyster. Some people never will change cause they fight changing. God has given us the tools in which to grow into better humans and Christians. A wonderful timely message was given to all. Joel quoted the scripture many times all in relation to change. The service lasted from 11AM and we left at 12:45PM. It did  not feel that long.

Well, we are going out to dinner at Houston's to celebrate our release to go home for Christmas. Max knows something is up and has been prancing around with his head up high and his tail wagging. Max loves to travel.

My grain of sand is irritating right now so I am going to work on it and see what I can change of myself.

Peace and Love be with you all.

CIAO!