We Now Have Dates to Begin the War

The excellent chemo clinic in Boone called this morning with two dates for Bill.

May 16th, he will get his baseline "ECHO"*, and on Monday, May 21, he will get his first chemo. I believe that will be the dreaded "red devil." But recently, we have heard such great things about red devil that our horror of it has almost changed to hope for at least a good remission. If Bill can stand the drug.

Several wonderful friends--and even one stranger!--wrote to us saying that the "red devil" wasn't nearly as bad as we'd read, and that there are lot of protective things that can be done to minimize the side effects. Two of these people have had this drug, and it killed their cancers.

Bill's classes are finished. Now he just has to grade 8 million papers by May 15. But at least he can stay home. Today he feels very ill--feverish, achy, extremely nauseous, tired, "just very sick" he says, to describe it to me. He's staying in bed and going to try to sleep a lot of the day away.

I asked if I could bring in a chair and sit by his bedside and watch over him (that was after he asked me to check him while he is sleeping and make sure he is still alive! That's how bad he feels!), but he said no chair; said he would never get to sleep with me staring at him. hahah. "I'll look away!" I said. Nope.

So I'm on a couch outside the room, ten feet from him, NOT staring, and I will watch/listen over him from here. Thank you for reading this. I really don't think much will happen between now and the ECHO. But I might post on Sunday, just to say hi. Thank you for your prayers and love and being there (and Gwen, thank you for the home made bread! He went crazy!)(And Bill's beloved friends at church, thank you for all you did for him yesterday! He was elated!)(Cliff, the flowers remain beautiful!)(Dave, the choral CD is amazing!)(Love bombing friends, which is ALL of you: you're sustaining our boy!).

Love to you all. Cowboy and Cowgirl

*An echocardiogram, often referred to in the medical community as a cardiac ECHO or simply anECHO, is a sonogram of the heart. (It is not abbreviated as ECG, which in medicine usually refers to an electrocardiogram.) Also known as a cardiac ultrasound, it uses standard ultrasound techniques to image two-dimensional slices of the heart. The latest ultrasound systems now employ 3D real-time imaging.