We’ve been on a fairly whirl-wind travel adventure over the past few months. First to Alaska, then to Australia and Singapore, then to Wisconsin, and now on to New Mexico. We did this in anticipation of Paul’s impending transplant and Tim’s return to chemo. We figured we wouldn’t be able to travel once all this started, and we were right. As soon as we got back from Wisconsin visiting with Paul’s dad, a whole onslaught of tests and procedures began and were scheduled for the next few weeks. We can squeak in Santa Fe, but that’s about it.

Right now, Paul’s transplant is scheduled for the first week of November. That means most of the time we’ll be over at Stanford intermittently, then staying there for a week or more. Once Paul completes the transplant and is sent back home, we’ll need to restrict everything. Paul will become a bubble-boy for a while. Meaning, no visitors, no foods brought in, no going outside, no travel, no nothing... Just TV, reading and recuperating. It will be a drag, but we hope life will get better after a month or so. The transplant doctors have been relaxing some of the restrictions over the past year or so, and we’ll find out how severe all these really are once we meet with our Stanford team.

Tim will meet with his oncologist when we get back from Santa Fe. Tim and she will need to discuss and decide on what the next steps will be in his cancer treatment: To remain off chemo, to re-start chemo, or possibly get into a new clinical trial. In the meantime, Tim has had some pain that seems to be the result of his bile duct stent becoming blocked. When they put his stent in 2+years ago, they said it would only remain clear a year at most. So, in this case, it’s well past the due date. An endoscopic procedure is likely.

Quokkas on Rottnest Island (near Freemantle, Australia)