Time is Flying - more than 50% done with chemo

Happy Spring. Where to start...well, let's start with health. A week ago, Eden started cycle 4 of a potential 6 cycles of chemotherapy. She launched into this cycle with a lot of gusto, ready to take it on and get herself ever closer to finishing all 6 cycles. To review, each cycle is 8 weeks, with the first four a mix of 3 different drugs taken at various, but specific intervals. The last four weeks are rest, giving Eden's blood counts an opportunity to recover before the onslaught of the next round. Her blood has definitely taken a hit - some of the most critical measurements include platelets (for clotting), neutrophils (white blood cells critical to fight infection), ALCs (Absolute Lymphocyte Counts, also critical in fighting infection). All get blasted by the chemotherapy and take time to recover. These reductions impact Eden's ability to fight infection, so she wears masks on planes, avoids cleaning out the barn, and steers clear of downtown Beijing. In all seriousness, this is pretty important stuff, and so she gets her blood drawn weekly so that the doctors can keep tabs on a couple dozen factors that could impact her ability to both tolerate treatment and fight germs and other bad stuff. So far, so good.

Eden has been continuing to work out - a combination of running and doing pilates. Her favorite pilates instructor that she loves to hate is Maryanne, a 50 year-old psychotic force of nature who can make grown men cry (just ask me). And thankfully, she has managed to mostly avoid the awful crumminess we all think of when we think of chemo - nausea, vomiting, even peripheral neuropathy (nerve numbness and pain). She has it down to a science. She takes anti-nausea medication with her chemo, eats healthy, and exercises and stays active throughout the day. A few days into one of the drugs, she often gets pain in her jaw which is a form of peripheral neuropathy, and sometimes she'll experience numbness and coldness in a finger or two. But otherwise, she's handling side effects amazingly.

Eden continues to work, part-time, and her company and coworkers at Juno Therapeutics are just amazing. She and I feel very lucky that she is not just part of an extraordinary organization, but that their whole mission is to kick the crap out of cancer. While they don't specifically work on brain cancers - their focus is on blood cancers - the work they do in immunotherapy could have an immense impact on brain cancer within our lifetimes. It will certainly have an impact across a wide variety of cancer types by focusing the body's own immune system on attacking cancer cells.

And...Eden's hair!! Oh my, it's awesome. So, a lot of her hair has grown in. For those who haven't seen her in a long time, her head was fully shaved last summer pre-op, and then the radiation she received in September/October basically made half of her head bald and shiny :). But over the last several months, the hair follicles have begun to return and they are retaking the bald spot from the outside in. A couple of months ago, she decided to let her whole head of hair grow in - I had been shaving it since having half a bald head she thought is nicer and easier than a half a head of hair. But now, since the bald spot is getting smaller and smaller, it's starting to look pretty good! And she went to her hairdresser, Jeremy at Annie Fisher Hair, who has been amazing. So amazing, it makes me tear up. Jeremy has been taking such good care of Eden. He has been shaping her hair as it grows in and a few weeks ago he dyed it platinum blonde - see photo above. So now Eden is sporting a do that would make a rebel like Billy Idol yell.

Hard to believe it's already mid-May. Mother's Day is this Sunday and we will have a wonderful day to celebrate Eden. The girls are doing well, getting ready to finish school and do some amazing things this summer. Alina will be attending a 2-week art school in Napa Valley and Julia is going to New York with her cousin and grandparents. Mid-August we are going to Maui and then at the end of the summer is Julia's bat mitzvah. Just a couple of weeks ago, Eden's sister Libby was here, which always brings some sunshine to the household. We're really looking forward to hosting our family for Julia's bat mitzvah -- lots of folks will be here from out of town.

I'll try to not let 4 months go by again before my next update. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have been here - grandparents schlepping from Chicago and Florida, siblings from all corners of the country, and friends near and far who have kept our spirits very, very high. Eden and I have been doing lots of planning for a great year to come, particularly once treatment is done. But, even though we're looking forward, we've been pleasantly surprised by how fulfilling this year has been - a year we originally thought might be our "lost year" has actually become an incredibly meaningful one.