Sat., Nov 18 - God's Hat Trick - From Eileen

Trust me when I tell you to sit down. Now hold onto the arms of the chair.

Harry is in remission.

Let's just let that sink in for a minute...



As you know, we've been waiting for the results of the bone marrow biopsy for a week. Yesterday, a very frustrated Dr. O'Rourke came in at about 8:00 am and said the results were still not in. He did, however, enumerate the 3 possible outcomes - no change, remission, or some leukemia cells still floating around - and told us he thought it would probably be the third possibility. Harry had a pretty bad night with lots of tossing and turning and violent nightmares. This morning, O'Rourke's partner, Dr. Spitzer, came in and said, "So how about that biopsy?" We said, "Yeah, we're STILL waiting for the results." Spitzer said, "What are you talking about? I just read the report. It's clear." To which, in our typically calm and understated fashion, we both yelled, "WHAT?!?!" Spitzer was having a really jolly time by now, and said to Harry, "I'll show your wife the report," and to me, "Hurry up. I'll show you the report." Not that he was thrilled or anything. Now those of you who know me, know I'm the last person in the family that anyone would invite to look at a medical report. But we fairly ran down the hall to look at it, and Spitzer underlined the phrase that said, "No (blah blah blah) and/or (blah blah blah) evidence of residual/recurrent acute leukemia." He then went on to say, "Now, even though he's in REMISSION, he'll still need some followup chemo. Like weeding a garden. You get all the weeds you can see, but you still spray so they don't come back." I was still in shock and said, "Let me get this straight. Here's what O'Rourke said yesterday, and he said he thought it would be option 3." Spitzer just smiled and said, "This is better."

So it's Christmas in our room, and we're dancing on the breath of God. Not that we should be surprised. Afer all, Larry called it from the beginning.

Sweet dreams, Harry.

Thank you, God.

------------------ From Harry Our Hero ---------

One and all,

I have been fighting demons, and this is the last of them. I cannot sleep enough.

Till tomorrow.