Belated Happy New Year. While we’re so grateful to be able to see 2017 (especially for Tim), it was a somewhat rocky few early weeks over the holidays. We both had some ups and downs with our chemo and side-effects. Nothing too dramatic, but let’s say we spent a lot of time close to the bathroom.

We had a wonderful visit with Paul’s dad. We dad-proofed the house (taped down rug edges, upgraded accommodations in the bathroom and just slowed down a bit). Dad really enjoyed being with us, and vice versa. We managed to get in a Christmas Eve crab feed with friends, and dad was more than happy to finish it all up. When his visit was over, he got on the plane by himself and went back to 20 below weather in Milwaukee. He’s doing ok.

Over the holidays, Tim had been feeling worse than usual with his chemo. It turned out that the dexamethasone (steroid) he was taking as part of his chemo treatment was causing adrenal insufficiency. That resulted in Tim suffering extreme fatigue, low blood pressure, fainting and exhaustion. Now he’s weaning himself off the steroid, but it needs to be a slow and gradual process at the risk of bad consequences. A repeat PET scan is scheduled for late February to determine the progress of his treatment.

Paul has been doing pretty well although he does get fatigued easily. Meanwhile, Paul’s recent lab results were very good, but the one critical result (M-protein) was the same as last time. This means that the chemo effect might be leveling off. If so, then they’ll plan to do stem cell harvesting at Stanford in the next few weeks or months. Right now, Paul has one more round of lab tests in a couple weeks plus a PET scan. That will determine when to proceed with the harvesting.

Sunset at our campsite at Cascade Lake, Eastern Sierra. Close to 11,000 feet.