Dear friends and family people,

It has been some time since I sent out an update about Christine's progress with her cancer treatment.  In this case, no news has definitely been good news!  She has been undergoing immunotherapy infusions every six weeks for a year now, with the main side effect being an ongoing fatigue which has cut down on her usual indefatigable energy; I guess it is more accurate to refer to it right now as "defatigable," if that is a word!   And you may remember that the treatments did cause her thyroid gland to give up, which was too bad but has been handled well with daily doses of Synthroid.

But for the good news:  today she had her FINAL INFUSION.  It was a regular love fest at the Kaiser facility in Denver.  Christine brought in some of her delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies for the staff, and they gathered around her chair right after the treatment to serenade her with a rousing chorus of "Hit the Road, Jack!"  We anticipate that her energy will begin to pick up in another couple of months, as this last dosage of Keytruda works its way through her system.  Our much-loved grandson Deven wanted to be present for this final session, and after we were done at Kaiser he joined us for a celebratory brunch at a fancyish place on the way home.  This week Deven is finishing up his year teaching middle school and high school music, but they were glad to give him the day off to be with his Grandma.

We have also been going to another Kaiser facility every four months for Christine to have a PET scan, and so far these have shown no sign of cancer cropping up anywhere else in her body.  She will continue to have these going forward, now every six months, and we are cautiously optimistic.  There are no guarantees that there will not be a recurrence via metastasis, but all the signs are as good as they can be at this point, and we will take that!

Once again, it has been wonderful to have the ongoing love and support from friends and family, so a big thank you to you all for that!  And I must add that the staff at Kaiser - doctors, nurses, physicians' assistants and technicians - has been great:  friendly, responsive, informative and encouraging.

Of course, your responses, comments and general whoops are welcome as always.  I will try to send something out again in the coming months, but for now we just wanted you to share in the good news that a milestone has been passed and so far the future looks promising!

Love, David (and, of course, the lovely Christine)