Hi Uncle Frank,

The new medication Dad is going on starting tomorrow is called anti-thymocyte globulin or (ATG).

(A thirty year old friend of mine with a severe form of cancer with a very poor prognosis had this therapy about three years ago. It was hard on him, but it worked and he has been cancer-free and healthy since. FF)

Today the Dr's told Mom he received it before in preparation for the bone marrow transplant. Also, we should leave him off email updates going forward. Today he called me, heavily medicated because they gave him a new pain button he could click himself, asking about the note. Now that he's doing a little better he's been reading email, in this case under the influence. He had forgotten what the Dr. told him about Christmas and I had to tell him all over again. I'm sure if he would have read the note yesterday when he was coherent he wouldn't have thought twice about it, but I can't imagine what goes through his head when he's drugged up. Anyway, let's do our best to keep things positive with him and boost his confidence as much as realistically possible.

(Pat, I'm very sorry for the screw up. I'm not very good at this mass email stuff and should have made sure that your Dad's address was taken off. It's off now. I really apologize. Jack called me between patients and told me that it was the first time that he heard about how serious it was. To me he sounded pretty clear-headed. I thought that I'd really screwed up and that I had somehow misunderstood and that he found out for the first time by my accidental mass email. I felt horrible. I feel a little better now. Everybody, keep communication with Jack positive! FF)

The nurses did said they kept him up all night giving him additional platelets because they dropped below 50 (don't know the units), so that was the main reason he was so out of it today. It's not a decrease in his overall condition. The additional platelets aren't an area of concern for the nurses or doctors.

One update on Mom, the Dr. said the plan is to get her eye as healthy as possible to prepare her for a cornea transplant early next year. Apparently wearing contacts trapped bacteria on her eye and it damaged her cornea pretty badly, but with the transplant she should have good eye sight with glasses. A relief, but I'm not sure what her potential recovery time will be.

Thank you for keeping the family in the northwest updated. I'll talk to you soon,

Patrick