What a day!

Amazingly good news...

Let's go back to the beginning of treatment. Remember that Harv's CEA count was 661. Three weeks ago, his number was at 266.2.

TODDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY, his CEA count was....

Wait for it!

Wait for it!

60.6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And, look at last week and this week's notes: 

"Significant  change in lab result, rechecked by lab."

☺

In other good news,  we were told that he's at maximum dosage for his weight so that is good in relationship to how he will continue to handle treatments.

We'll come back next Thursday for a CT scan which I'm expecting will show no cancer!! ☺

Harv's a little light-headed, but that's normal for him after infusion.

We got started late today so we'll be later getting home, but today was a very, very good day.

LOVE YOU PEOPLE!!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

(And, P.S. -- I came home to a clean house which was cleaned by someone I don't even know! Thank you, friend of a friend of mine!)

♥ Love ♥

This morning Love showed up in the form of tree pruners.

And a few primroses...

People are AMAZING.

Filled with gratitude... AGAIN.

Thank you... ♥

Today, Harvey's boss, came for a visit.

We were happy to have her come and thought it was HUGE that she would make the trip to see us.  That, in itself was a wonderful gift. But, wait! She brought FLOWERS, too!!!

And THEN! after we had all been visiting for a few minutes, she pulled out a large brown envelope that was full of cards and well-wishes...which also included cards and gifts for our girls...from people who work with and love Harvey. 

Looks like they thought of just about everything we might possibly need.  There are gift cards and donations to help us in many ways. And, there are puzzle books to help make our drive and waiting room time more fun.

The gifts are overwhelming. The love is overwhelming.

And, people just keep DOING things! 

It's difficult to describe how grateful we are and how loved we feel. We've never been on this side of things so it's also a struggle to learn how to accept graciously. "Thank you" --- to ALL of you who have wished us well or called us or sent a card or visited us or prayed for us or made us dinner or sent flowers or any of the countless things you have done --- seems very inadequate, but it's the only thing we know to say.

We love you all. And, we feel the love you are sending our way.

Just a quick update on our lives...

The reason you haven't seen many posts lately is because (thankfully) there's not much to report.

Harv has continued to respond to the chemo with very few side effects. As amazing as it is, the biggest problem is fatigue. And, sometimes he has difficulty sleeping at night (which has also become a problem for me.) He takes naps every day and in the more "extreme" times, finds it a challenge to do much throughout the day. Even mental things are tiring.

Yesterday and the day before, he took two pretty good walks. He walks more slowly and with less energy than before he got sick, but he still got out there. And, I'm pretty sure he'd tell you it felt good be active.

Last weekend we had some photographers come to the house to do family photos. Harv had made that arrangement as one of our Christmas gift "dates."  We moved it up some so that we could make sure he was feeling good for that. We had fun with some silly poses and I think we ended up with some good photos. I'll try to post some of them when we get 'em back.

Last night, he took me out to a very nice local Italian restaurant for Valentine's dinner. We ate too much, but had a nice evening. (No photos to share.)

Tomorrow another friend of his from work is coming for a visit. (Gotta clean the house!)

People are GOOD.

He goes back to the doctor on Tuesday the 21st for round 3 of the chemo. We'll find out soon when his next CT scan will be. We're anxious to see how it has changed from December.

Thank you all for your continued concern and prayers and practical ways of making our lives easier.

We love you.


P.S. Reminder: I keep updating the "thank you" list (February 6th blog entry) as people CONTINUE to bless us. Check it out.  ♥

Hey Jim...

This post is for you.

-chc and Harv

Thank yous...

A while back, Harvey and I started making a list of all the people who have done something for us since his diagnosis. The list is long and I'm very afraid I've left someone off (and some of you have chosen to be ANONYMOUS. >:-| )

My intention is to write each of you a REAL "thank you" note, but I haven't begun.

So, in the event I don't get around to it in a reasonable time, I wanted to do a public thank you to you all.

Thank you for:

• the cards and letters
• pruning our apple trees
•  
• First Nations jingle dance
• Music video ;-)  -- (DVD message and guitar recital) -very sweet
• the meals (frozen ones in my freezer and fresh ones twice a week)
• special "road trip" food for our trip to Seattle
• the coffee cake 
• the guitar-playin' evening
• the calls
• the books and e-books
• the music
• the fruit 
• the Harry and David gift box
• the flowers
• the house cleaning
• the hugs
• the gift cards (from $ sent for us)
• the donations to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance -- for Dr. Lin's research
• the cookies
• wine (somebody knows me!)
• brownies
• spa gift (somebody ELSE knows me!)
• movie tickets
• the shirts & sweatshirts
• the prayer quilt
• taking out our garbage
• the cupcakes that just showed up one night
• the running with my girls
• the ski trip with my girls
• the welcome you've given Celeste 
• walking my dog-child
• FLYING and  DRIVING long distances to visit us
• the comments on the blog
• the comments on my FB page
• the prayers
• the love and concern
• YOUR FRIENDSHIP 

 We love you all and we are humbled by your generosity and concern.

 And we are ALL gonna kick this cancer right out of Harvey's body!

GoFightWin!!!
♥♥♥♥

(P.S. Keep checkin' back 'cause I keep rememberin' other thank yous!)