Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving here in the US. One of my favorite holidays. It is very still and cold, blue sky and sunshine, fabulous fall foliage. Families traditionally gather to feast and reflect on all they have to be thankful for. Turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, yams, pumpkin pie seem to be the staples. We spent all day yesterday out at Stanford so two quiet days coming up. Andrew had been feeling pretty darn tired and no wonder ... very low red blood cell count ... and a few pints should perk him up for Thanksgiving. He is half way to day 100 (when he goes from being outpatient to clinic patient). Another blood test was drawn specifically to check engraftment count again yesterday (should have results in a week to 10 days) and he is about to start to slowly reduce the immune suppressing drugs. As the new immune system "wakes up" (the t-cells/killer cells) it will decide how to respond to its new/foreign environment. This is when graft versus host disease can rear it's ugly head. It's a bit of a catch 22. You want some "action" (recognition of the cancer cells and fighting them) but you don't want them to fight the good cells. Having a related donor should help. Kate flew home this week. It was so wonderful to have her for the 10+ weeks. She looked after Andrew (and the rest of us), the kids loved having their grandma around and I got to do some great runs etc. while she looked after the home front. Our place has never been cleaner and we have never eaten so well. Thanks Mum ... we are all very thankful for your help.