Jan. 23, 2009 Update

Ray came over to Orlando with me to attend a conference. We brought the kids and planned on seeing the Blue Man Group tomorrow night with the kids. Unfortunately, his arm started hurting and swelling, so we went to the ER. It turns out that he had a deep blood clot in his arm from his pic line. The doctor decided to remove the pic line and admit him for the night to try to break up the clot (to prevent an embolism). Of course Ray's main concern was whether he would be out in time for the Blue Man Show. The doctor said, "yes, if the clot goes away in time."

We head back up to Shand's Monday evening for his BMT work-up. Hopefully this won't delay the transplant again!!!

New Year's Update on Ray

Ray finished up 6 weeks of chemo around December 19th. His doctor called on Christmas Eve with Ray's latest lab reports and said that it looks like the chemo did not work. He will be taking Ray's case back in front of the Bone Marrow Transplant Board in January.

Obviously Ray became extremely depressed over this news, so we all did everything we could to cheer him up. Ray's biggest wish was to see snow, so, I booked us a week's stay at a family resort ranch in New York. We flew to New York the day after Christmas. We spent 5 days at the resort horse back riding, snow skiing and tubing, enjoying shows, good food and campfires. On our last day, we drove into the city and saw the sites with my cousin and her partner. This was the most energy and fun I had seen Ray have in a very long time! We had a blast.

We are now home recuperating from our trip. Ray wanted to stay longer, but it was time to come home and face the music. We ask for your prayers in Ray's next step in this journey.