Updates....Good Ones! :)

I've anxiously been checking my UCSF chart online for results from my PET scan on Tuesday.  Finally, this morning Dr. Andreadis called to say it was clean!  Whoa!  I'll continue receiving my brentuximab treatment for now, but that's fine.

Aunt Rara came to visit us all the way from NY for 9 days!  We had great fun visiting supermarkets, grocery stores, gourmet markets, and restaurants.  No time for museums with so many stores here!

Cristina's last day with us was last Friday.  We're sorry to see her go, but Nicholas will still hang out with her on a weekend day occasionally.  Nicholas and Carson now have a new nanny named Tania on Tuesdays and Thursday, who is wonderful.  She's a former preschool teacher and perfect for this phase of their lives.  Nicholas will be in a preschool prep program on Mondays and Wednesdays part-time, and I'll be a mommy the rest of the time!  Big changes but it'll be fun (and challenging) to be with Nicholas more.

Taking pics of ourselves before music class....

Not much time to write/post/search for pics (not sure why a bunch are missing from my computer right now) since Nic is needing attention!  Cheers! 

Suggested Reading

I like to follow a blog called "A Cup Of Jo".  Today she posted a link to this article.  It's beautiful, and heartbreaking, and just....so....complicated.

Oopsies

That was a really long gap between posts.

But we were sick.  Nicholas and I got sick on the very same day with an upper respiratory illness.  He got better after a few days and I ended up in the ICU for a week.  Then Jonathan got sick and couldn't visit!  It's been a long recovery but I'm feeling more energetic each day.

I've also started up treatment again for my Lymphoma because a couple new spots appeared on my last scan (in late October).  I'm back on the antibody drug Brentuximab, which is an infusion every three weeks with very little side effects.  I've had two doses so far and am doing well :)

Nicholas got a green ribbon because he can now swim at least 6 feet on his own!

He really enjoys the carousel at Golden Gate Park

Trick or Treat!

Nicholas was his favorite superhero for Halloween, a fireman!  I crafted a fire truck out of a cardboard box which he gladly wore (and even added his own siren for effect!).  In the morning, we went trick or treating on Chestnut Street, where the local merchants line the sidewalks with bowls of candy and hundreds of toddlers march along gathering their goodies.  While the morning activity was certainly enough to fulfill any Halloween needs of a 2 year old, I wanted Nicholas to get the nighttime experience too.  So we went to nearby Sea Cliff and went to a dozen or so houses....most of which were on hills and had quite a few stairs, which is hard enough for a little kid, let alone one wearing a box!

Nicholas had the opportunity to show some real fireman his costume and he got scared!

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Oh for Pete's Sake.

I had a scan last week which has revealed a couple new areas of disease in my chest and neck.  This is a real bummer.  I'll be going back on Brentuximab (aka SGN 35, Adcetris) infusions which I had prior to and post transplant.  I responded well to the drug after transplant before (my residual disease disappeared prior to the graft really completely taking effect), so there is no reason to think that won't happen again.  The infusions are every 3 weeks for about 45 minutes (which means about a 3 hour office visit), and the side effects are very minimal -- I'll probably experience some neuropathy (numbness) in my fingertips as I did before, and perhaps some fatigue, but that should be it.  I'm also being tapered off the immunosuppressant really quickly and am now totally off the steroid in order to allow the graft-vs-lymphoma effect to work to its fullest.

Life goes on.....

What We've Been Up To.....

Open House at Fire Station 34!

Visiting Nanny and Grandy's train park in AZ

Checking out Grandy's Mini Cooper.  "Why are there no doors back here?!"

Before....

After!

Like a fish in water....

Nicholas had an olympic moment in the pool today!  Check out our little fishy....

(he also had an olympic moment on the potty a couple days ago but I'll refrain from posting those pictures)