We are in Phoenix!

Hi Friends,
Well we made it to Phoenix to visit our daughter Karen for a week. the doctor visit yesterday was good. Joe's counts all went up, well the white and the Hgb. The platelets dropped a little more but the doctor said they would start to go up now because the treatment was 10 days ago. good news that his bilirubin is now 1.2, back in the normal range. He is still weak but other than that we are happy with the news. We have made an appointment with the GI guy at Northwest to put a stent in where his biliary catheter is on Tuesday May27th. Then he won't have an opening to the outside and less chance of infection. He also had his blood cultures repeated to make sure the sepsis was gone and they grew nothing so we are in the clear there. I guess I shouldn't say "we" but we re definitely in this journey together.
We had a smooth flight out arriving a little early and we have just had a good nap waiting for Karen to get home from work. We are going to our favorite Italian restaurant tonight, Baci's, which used to be in Plainfield, where we live, and moved to AZ. Karen's boyfriend Mark will be joining us (and for most of the week). We plan to drive to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday and take a 13 hour tour which includes a 5-7 mile float trip down the Colorado (?) River but we don't have to paddle so that is a good thing. Karen and Mark will join us on this also so we will get to spend some quality time with them. We planned the Grand Canyon trip thinking Karen had to work and then she decided to take the week off. We hope to visit our friends the Sullivans on Monday and see our friends the Presleys on Friday. They both used to live in Carillon with us and moved west a few years back. A few weeks ago I wasn't sure if we would be able to make this trip but God has really blessed us with recovery. We couldn't do it without all your prayers. Thanks so much for caring for us and about us. Thanks Ed for driving us to the airport this morning,. That made it much easier (and cheaper). Take care and God bless, Mary Anne