On Day 26 after his transplant, Paul is finally starting to feel a little better. It's not always steady improvement, but more of two steps forward one step backwards. However, at least there are a lot more moments when he's not feeling as sick as he was in December. Stanford said it will take a couple more weeks for Paul to get over the flu completely. The best news is that his stem cells have engrafted nicely and his cell counts are slowly coming back to normal. We're headed back to Stanford on Tuesday to review where things are at. Last week, Paul's central line was removed, since they no longer think he will need any transfusions or IV treatments. The next benchmarks will be when Paul no longer needs to wear his mask to go out of the house, getting off the low microbial diet, and when he can visit with friends again.

Tomorrow is a big day for Tim. He'll have his PET scan to help assess the status of his tumor and what his next treatment might be. Of course, we're both anxious about the results and also miffed that our time together of late has been so taken up with Paul's transplant and then both of us having the flu. It certainly calls to mind "in sickness and in health..."

Footsteps of Spring (Sanicula arctopoides)