Getting through it

Steve completed round three last Wednesday, March 20, the first day of spring, at least according to the calendar. The foot of snow that fell last week is melting and making it easier for Steve to get out and tend to the small orchard he planted a few years ago. I squeezed out all the cross country skiing I could this winter, but I'm ready for bare ground.
As for Steve's health, he's very fatigued from the after-effects of the chemo, needing platelet transfusions regularly and occasional red blood cells too. But nothing out of the ordinary for someone whose bone marrow is beaten-up every month.
There is no routine despite having done this chemo three times, rather it's more of a siege mentality of ticking off the days, making adjustments to the day depending on how he's feeling, and whether or not he has to get a transfusion that day, and just getting through it.
The fourth and final round, when any leukemia cells hanging around will get the final knock-out punch, will start sometime in the middle of April, depending on when his blood counts are at acceptable levels. And sometime this summer we'll stop talking about his blood, and get back to talking about other Maine topics, like how much wood you burned this year.

Bruce Hazard, Steve, and Gina at the Hazards's sap house. Bruce sits for hours boiling the sap down into maple syrup over a wood-fired evaporator -- that's after he's set up all the taps, collected all the sap, and cut the wood to heat the evaporator.  
Next time you eat maple syrup think of it as a labor of love. 
This picture was taken last Friday, right after Steve had received two units of blood and was feeling really well. 

Enjoying the sweet maple steam. (Steve is hidden by the vapors.) 
Nothing like a maple spa!

Ready for round three

The bone marrow biopsy came back normal today (Yeah!!) so they gave him the ok to go for round three. Here he is today sleeping in his hospital room, getting ready for the chemo to begin at 5 pm. Sleeping is a good thing to do in preparation and something that comes easy to Buxie.

He loves a good pie

Steve had the bone marrow biopsy today in Augusta under heavy sedation. Now he's sleeping like a baby. He'll be admitted to the hospital for round three of chemotherapy on Friday, providing the biopsy is NORMAL. No one expects the results to be otherwise!

Steve enjoys a pizza after the bone marrow biopsy. He hasn't eaten out since he had the last bone marrow biopsy in December when we went to a pizza place near the Brigham and Women's Hospital. 

We ate at the  Kennebec Pizza Company in Hallowell -- a very cute place with excellent wood-fired pizza. The young guy who owns it does it all, from running the place to making the pizzas.

Living the (somewhat) good life

This has been a good week. Thanks to speedy action by the dental team of John Poirier and Laurie McReel, a week ago Steve had a root canal for the tooth pain (not a mouth sore!). A few days later, the pain subsided.  Now that his blood counts are approaching normal range, he doesn't have to get blood transfusions or take antibiotics or anti-fungals. He's enjoying a brief respite from all the trauma he's had to endure -- what a concept!
For the past few days he's been out walking and supervising the tree removal for the soon-to-be installed photo-voltaic system. He has been cooking some meals and doing the dishes too.

Now he's sitting in our friend's, the Hazards, sugar shack helping Bruce Hazard watch the sap evaporate . . . a lengthy process given the 30 gallons of sap to one gallon of maple syrup ratio.
As for me, I am breathing easier too.  Yesterday, thanks to a friend prodding us to join her, Emily and I skied  at Sugarloaf  under brilliant blue skies and warm temperatures. If we had only one day to ski, we couldn't have picked a better day.
People have been wonderfully receptive to what we need, and staying in touch with us during these weeks when Steve feels like shit and I feel inert.  I am so grateful for such kindness and encouragement -- you have no idea how much this keeps us going.
Steve and I are lucky that we have already done a lot of traveling and had many adventures, otherwise it would be harder to sit back and wish we were living a full life. I wish Steve had the good health for us to be spontaneous and free-spirited, but right now we have to work  -- we just want to get 'r done!

Steve is anxious to get treatment underway again. Round three has already been delayed by a week due to the root canal and low blood counts. Tomorrow he'll have a blood test to see if his platelets are high enough to resume treatment.  He'll also have a bone marrow biopsy in the afternoon. We hope he'll be admitted into the hospital at the end of the week once the results of the bone marrow biopsy are back.  He's had three bone marrow biopsies done by three different people, who have all complained that his bones are the hardest that they've ever had to poke that long needle into.
Though his blood tests don't show any abnormal cells, we still worry about the results of the biopsy. It's hard to forget what a formidable foe Leukemia is.

And while he is half-way through consolidation treatment, the two to three week recovery from the chemotherapy doesn't seem to get any easier. After getting whacked hard three times already, the bone marrow is tired and slower to start reproducing cells after the chemo. This, combined with  the additional hospitalization and the root canal, made for a long couple of weeks waiting for the return of our Steve.

For me, it's easy to forget how difficult this past month was now that he feels pretty good. I mentioned this to him this morning, and he said he could see how I could feel this way, but he hasn't forgotten it. I sometimes have to remind myself that he is the one suffering through all of this.
But as his manager, I feel his pain. I recently told him that I liked being the boss and I didn't know if I was going to let him be the boss when this was all over with. He said he didn't know what he'd be like when this was all over with.

Emily massaging Steve's fuzzy head, sending her best healing vibes. 

My brother-in-law Arthur, and my brother Leo visited last weekend. Emily, Dustin and I were away on Saturday doing some wedding planning. When I returned, our guests had made a delicious paella. Even though we can't go Spain this spring, we had a taste of it with Mary's fabulous Valenciana paella. 

Arthur, my sister Mary with Steve and Gina.