April 15, 2010 - An Update... and a Nice Break from the Dreariness of Tax Day

Marc sent me another update today and I wanted to get it up right away. There is also a new addition to the rally-hat gallery and I have to say I love the creativity, the depth, that the gallery is gaining.  Keep rocking your hats for Marc!

The short story: too much nausea and bone pain, too little energy and white blood cells.  But as usual, a good outlook and is generally enjoying, or rather, appreciating, not having to shave very much.

Here's some news from the hands of our favorite couch-surfer:

"I finished round 4 of chemo last wednesday and since then have not been feeling very well. The chemo itself went pretty well, they had trouble accessing the port the first night, which in rough translation means no sleep for marc on night one. once they got everything working i made sure that we were back on schedule to finish by the 7th so i could get by butt home. Everything from that point on went pretty smoothly, had a great easter with your family who cam and entertained me for a few hours. and then on  wednesday I of course was released as planned.

The bone pain started thursday afternoon and lasted until about monday. The feeling is basically like a bruise all over the body. three-four days of that gets tough but everythng comes to an end at some point. I still have some bone pain in my knees and legs, nothing a few pain killers can't fix. I just results from my blood test today and all of my counts are pretty low. that accumulates to a weekend of couch surfing until monday when we findout if I need any transfusions. So right now i have a little bit of remaining pain and after writing this email, I can guarantee that all of my miniscule amount of energy will have drained and I will head back to the couch for recuperation.

Mood: surprising high and optimistic tho very little energy to show."

Marc will head back on the 23rd of April and until Monday at least will be honing his movie knowledge and texting skills and sleeping talents.  Keep the love coming and the hats.

(posted by amber with Marc's permission)

March 29, 2010 - The Overdue Update

Hey all, this is the long overdue post from a few weeks ago, post elijah party and melissa birthday fun.  I'm actually taking it straight from an email Marc sent about how he is doing... with some photos and commentary towards the end. Marc wrote on March 29, 2010:

"Sorry that I haven't gotten this update to you sooner, I have been pretty busy. The last 12 or so days have been great. The birthday was great but sorry I don't know if we got any mask pics and definitely no golf pics either. I had a lot of bone [pain] for the first couple of days because of the neulasta shot. that all went away around tuesday. I had a PET scan on saturday and am going to the doctor today to find out the results and get blood drawn. The pathology came back on the bone marrow biopsy I had on the 17th and it showed no signs of disease according to Aunt Lisa. I haven't heard from the doctor yet on that either.

On a less medical note, two of my friends from college drove up from the LA area on friday for a couples of hours tosee me and it was really great seing them. It has been years since the last time I saw them so that was fun. I spent yesterday hanging out with the Kyle, Denny and Lois Anderson and they had for dinner. It was nice hanging out with them as well. My roommate from college is coming up today from Bakersfield, its been a while since I saw him so I am excited about that. And that is pretty much it from here. I had a great time these past several days and a lot of visitors/ support.

 I will let you know the results of the PET scan as soon as i know. I hope all is going well for you and that you are not over working yourself. Take care and I will talk to you soon." 

After much debate, i am leaving  in the personal note to me at the end... only because i think it shows something about Marc's character that is worth celebrating, it does not change in the midst of his own very involved life situation--he is not consumed by himself. Somehow in the midst of everything he is fighting he still has energy to care, and he cares so much for each of us reading this now.

Here are some photos from the long-awaited much enjoyed elijah-birthday-party.  It is a bummer that there is not one with a mask as i thought that had some comic-book appeal to it, nor is there a photo of the golf trip... but there are plenty of elijah pictures and one of elijah and Marc together and in the end, that's probably just about right.

(posted by Amber with Marc's permission)