Over the past few weeks, we’ve been taking a few trips before we both head into tests and procedures in late May, June and beyond. It took a lot of juggling all of our medical appointments and procedures in order to get away. So far, we’ve been up to Arcata for a botanical workshop, seeing plants up along the coast and in the redwoods of Northern California. Then, we went to Santa Fe for our own botanical and hiking adventures, where we also got to meet up with various friends and Tim’s brother and wife. We can’t do as much as we used to, but we keep trying to make the most of the energy and endurance we have. It’s also a little tricky navigating how much we can be exposed to other people when we travel, so we’ve been trying to take as many precautions as possible. Our next trip in June will be to visit Paul’s dad in Milwaukee. He just turned 97 yesterday, and is still going strong.

Paul will see the radiology oncologist this coming week to prepare for 10 days of radiation of one of his vertebrae (L5) that appears to contain a lesion from his cancer. We’re hoping that the radiation will help with the sciatica-like pain in his left hip and leg. This chronic pain has limited Paul’s ability to walk, hike or even stand. It was a big help to get a portable stool which allows Paul to take a breather every few minutes or so when he’s out and about. Looming in the near future is a bone marrow biopsy to determine when Paul will be ready for bone marrow harvesting and transplant at Stanford – likely to happen in August or September.

Tim will have a PET/CT scan in mid-June to determine the state of his cancer - if and how much it has progressed without chemo -- and what options he has for treatment. Tim has been off chemo now for almost 3 months. He has been feeling better now that he doesn’t have to cope with constant nausea and other serious side-effects of chemo. The one remaining chemotherapy causes significant neuropathy in addition to other possible side-effects, and Tim is weighing this against quality of life… Not an easy decision to make.

Georgia O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico