July 9, 2008

Hi Friends,
We just got back from a ten day trip to Ohio and New Jersey. We spent the first few days in Ohio with our son Michael, Heidi and the kids. Got to watch them in a swim meet and it was great fun. We left our dog Lucky there and traveled to the Jersey shore to see our diving friends, Bob and Diane, and we had a great four days there. Well, 4th of July was a little exciting. Joe spliked a temp of 102.8 so we called the onc. on call and she had us go to the ER in case Joe was septic again. As it turns out, he has a urinary tract infection so got IV antibiotic in the Er and sent home with oral meds. Diane stayed with us through the whole thing which took about 4 hours ( not bad for a holiday in the ER) while Bob was at home cooking our meal which we never ate. Bob is a gourmet cook and he made lunches, appetizers and meals the whole time we were there with luscious desserts while we lounged around and sat on the deck and watched the ocean. We played cards,(hand and foot) afternoon and evening and we ended up guys 5 wins, girls 4 (at least in my recollection) That is better than we did in Bonaire by a long shot so we were happy. It was very relaxing and Joe is feeling much stronger but the antibiotics are messing with his stomach. He will get chemo tomorrow is all goes well. His bilirubin is climbing a little to 3.3 so we have to watch and see if the stent is working well. We had uneventful drives all the way along except everytime I took the wheel we had torrential downpours. Of course Joe couldn't sleep with me driving in that kind of weather but we had good times and good talks. God has been so good to us to give us all this time and we sure appreciate all of it. It appears this jouney is going to have crises along the way and we just have to go with the flow and take one day at a time. We are now almost two years into the diagnosis (July 26th) and he probably had it at least a year before that. He is still planning on a short fishing trip to Canada with our son, Michael and two grandsons in August. But for now we are home for a month enjoying the flowers and the nice weather and family and friends. God bless you all. Mary Anne