Photos, Counts, and Gratitude

One of Renee's many garden accents - fairy habitat :-)

Hello friends, I saw Jessica and Dr. Kritz (very briefly) yesterday.....When I am doing very well, Dr. Kritz lets Jessica (advanced practice nurse or APN) see me and he focuses his attention on people with more troubles - as he should.  Anyway, my platelets were up again, this time to 99,000 (from 77,000) - which is GREAT news.  Dr. Kritz pronounced my count-killing malady (still unidentified) as "resolved".  My white count and neutrophils were still way high, so we will stop the neupogen shots and see where my counts stabilize unaided.

I have two trips to Houston coming up, June 18-20 and July 2-3, for my t-cell infusions.  Briefly, these t-cells were taken from my sister Laure, my donor, a few months ago, then modified to "target" EBV, the virus that is integrated with my lymphoma tumor cells.  Then they are copied into the billions of cells and will be infused into my body on the two aforementioned dates.  The design is that these super t-cells will attack and kill any lymphoma/EBV that tries to reconstitute in my body - preventing a relapse of the highly aggressive lymphoma that I HAD!  Any of you scientific types may enjoy further reading here:

http://www.clinicaltrial.gov/ct2/show/NCT00062868

This is a clinical trial.. and this is the doc that is in charge - she is with the Baylor College of Medicine and is a native New Zealander:

http://www.bcm.edu/fromthelab/vol05/is8/1006-2.html

I continue to be stunned and amazed at my medical status - cancer-free, counts looking good - healthy and active - the Lord has blessed me and my family and we are full of gratitude and praise.  He is in control - always has been, always will be.  If we think we are in control, it is an illusion.  The illusion can be shattered in tragic ways.  I was under no such illusion, thanks be to God, and as I told a friend yesterday, I think it is a beautiful thing that we believers can confront a trial and KNOW that it is the Lord, saying in effect - "I have a tough assignment for you - it will challenge you and it will be hard, but if you trust me, it will bear eternal fruit in your life and in the lives of others".  This is miraculous, beautiful, and amazing.

As I left the clinic yesterday, I saw this family of geese that has taken up residence on the lawn outside the front door -

Please join me in looking for the beauty of God's creation every day.  It's there in so many ways, and it's there for us.  Any of you wondering about my return to work - I can say that given these latest improvements in my counts, discussions are beginning on that topic, which is another praise.  Much love - Dan and Renee