Clear Progress

Almost everyone who has seen Chris recently has agreed that she has visibly improved during the last week or so. You can hear it in her voice, her stride is quicker, her demeanor more positive, everything is looking better. She has a new found confidence that just a few weeks ago did not seem likely. A few milestones:

-Chris drove this past weekend. No big deal for most of us, but a really clear indication of her mental alertness, her reaction time, her overall confidence. This will help unleash her a bit. She drove with me, so now we need to get her to drive alone.
-She has been walking more and more, and at a good pace. Today she did about 3 miles, with many hills. Just a few weeks ago she was doing an easy mile on the high school track.
-Chris and I went to Burlington VT this weekend to visit Melissa. As such, we stayed at a hotel, we went out for dinner and breakfast, ran some errands, all the time with Chris really feeling good about getting out. Of course she is really careful about avoiding sick people and not touching door knobs, etc.
-Friday night she and I went to a dinner at the Four Seasons in Boston - very fancy, live orchestra, the works. Chris looked beautiful. She was very engaged in conversation, she ate well, and to top it all off, she actually danced with me - albeit a very slow dance. A few months ago, I was not sure if I would ever have the opportunity to get to dance with her again, or even go out in public, but it is clear she has turned a corner. I can't tell you how happy I was to have the chance to spend a night out with her. It has been a hell of a summer, but the chance to go out on Friday night was so important, and she did great! My parents and siblings were all there and they were all excited to see the progress.

Chris' weight today was 103, still very low but up a pound. Her blood pressure has been pretty steady, averaging about 100/75, so we will reduce one more pill that keeps the pressure up.

As I have stated previously, Sept. 28th will be the magical 100 days since her stem cell transplant. This represents a major milestone. The biggest is that this is the end of the high risk period and when they stop tracking mortality from the stem cell transplant. The doctors have stated that any issues after that point are not related to the transplant and the chemo directly. Of course this has no relationship to the actual disease itself, which we will go back to Boston in December for that testing, but it does represent success that the high risk transplant and chemo were survived.

I am bold enough to ask any readers to send a Congratulations card to Chris so that it arrives on Sept 27th or thereabouts. (The 28th is a Sunday). A simple card with your good wishes would be fantastic. No flowers, no gifts, just a card. I do not think she knows how many people have been praying for her, have asked about her, have read the blog, but she would be amazed.

Address Info is:

Chris Wright
20 Rolling Meadow Drive
Holliston, MA. 01746
USA

I'll add this again in a later posting as a reminder.

I am also going to declare that Sept. 28 is the end of all of the amazing help from friends and neighbors. The meals have been absolutely incredible (trust me, I am the one gaining all the weight), the offers to run errands, the shopping, etc. -they have all been great, but we all need to get Chris back to complete self-reliance. By then she will be feeling very strong and she needs to know that she can live the life she had before she got ill. As well, although I know we all pray this is not needed, many of the patients go through this a second time 12 months later. We'll need your help then, so it's time to give you all a break.

So, to summarize, it is clear that the last week has been a significant upswing for Chris. Your help, prayers, and interest have been remarkable. Everyone has been a part of this progress - Thank You!!