SORRY!

I know it's been a really LONG time since this has been updated! I apologize to all of you who are faithful in checking "the blog." Richard did write his own update nearly a month ago now; however, after he spent 1 hour and 15 minutes typing (he still "hunts and pecks"), he hit the wrong button and deleted the whole thing. I think he said he thought "Create" meant that it would go on the blog. He was supposed to click on "Publish Post." Oops. So, needless to say for those of you who know Richard well, he closed the computer lid, grunting and mumbling who-knows-what under his breath about computers, and gave up. We've just been busy since then.

He's been back to work full-time, pretty much since he started. He felt well enough to work everyday, but he didn't do any overtime. He is still not taking the on-call phone, but he does work a little overtime here and there in the form of an extra service call at the end of the day, etc. He's doing really well; some evenings he's pretty tired, but overall, he's getting back to his old self.

He had 2 more head shots of chemo. in the past two weeks to make up for the ones he missed when he had the infection in his head port. Then went well; he just got a little tired for a couple of hours after the injection. Now, he can start the maintenance chemo. pills (a very low dose of chemo. that he takes as a pill each day).

He had his post-treatment PET scan, which came out CLEAR OF CANCER, just like it did halfway through! THANK GOD! The bird fungus thing is still there a little bit, but it is significantly smaller in size. His doctor thinks that as his immune system builds back up, he may not need to take that medication anymore either.

We are enjoying "normal" life! (Although, is life ever "normal" with Richard around?) We get up in the morning and get ready for work. Richard doesn't have a breakfast of pills anymore, so he actually has room for a bowl of cereal now and then. We change our cereal often, as we discovered that both of us get bored and tired of the same cereal everyday. Sometimes we even mix it up with toast or oatmeal. Once in awhile, we have banana bread if I forget to eat the bananas and they start to get a little too ripe for my liking (pretty much-any bit of brown).

We come home from work and exercise together (yep, I'm getting him to exercise and ENJOY IT). We have dinner (I'm still working on teaching him how to cook.) together and relax or do housework. However, with just the two of us, there's really not that much to do around here. We're both very neat and organized, so our house is pretty low maintenance. I have grad. class every Monday night until 8 or 8:30 p.m., so Mondays are pretty well shot, but the rest of the weeknights are not scheduled. We end up filling them up though.

I'm sure that our "normal" life isn't as exciting to read about as Richard's "cancer" life, but we sure are excited to be living in more "normal" circumstances! We really appreciate the small things.

In closing, I have a friend, a retired teacher, who I met when I student-taught in 2005. She was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer and will be having surgery soon. Please keep her in your prayers as she undergoes her treatment. I appreciate it!

Thanks for your continuous support or Richard, me, and everyone involved in helping Richard get where he is today. Without the support of family and friends, I don't know how we would have made it through. Life is so precious, and I'm so happy that my husband is alive and well and no longer sick. It's so great to see him building back his strength, getting his skin tone back, no more dark circles under his eyes, and hair growing back! He's doing really well, and we have God, his doctors, his friends, family, and countless people who prayed or supported him in other ways to thank!

Daphne