Dear Team Zachary,

I am writing you from our summer home in Omaha. Michael, Dara and Zachary are all here as well. When he and Dara arrived at the Med Center on Monday they started going to appointments to get him ready for chemo.

Testing one, two, three.....testing......

Blood counts and kidney functions were two of the main areas of focus. At the beginning of his first chemo his kidney functions were so diminished that certain chemo regiments were out of the question. With his kidney strength way up and his platelett count being good, the chemo they choose for him this time is popularly called ESHAP (as opposed to the earlier ICE).

I never get over the fact that one experience with cancer does not prepare you for the next. In this case that is a GREAT thing because his chemo this time has gone so well. When I say well I mean REALLY well. No nausea, no head games, nothing. As I am writing this he is downstairs playing chess with his father!! I told Samson, his older brother, that I think he may be just faking getting chemo this time it is going so well!

He and Dara will be coming back to Bloomington early in the week. They want him home as soon as possible after chemo because they know that his counts (everything) will start to drop like a stone by the end of the week. Air travel is not helpful when the immune system is compromised.

While the boys were playing chess, Dara and I went to an art show on the square. There was a photograph taken through a window pane that had so much rain on it that you couldn't see thorough the window very well but you could discern that behind the rain there was a beautiful garden. I almost broke into tears when I saw it. It is exactly how I am feeling.

Zachary and I speculated today that there are over 1,000 people who keep him in their daily thoughts. WOW. Faith, Hope and Love. And the greatest of them all is Love.

Ann