Thursday, November 18, 2010

News of note




















The black and white photo is of our family before Dave was born. Amy, the daughter of my dear friend Vaughan, had joined us for an outing. Merwin is holding Lincoln aloft. Arthur is in front of Lincoln. I have a hand on the shoulder of each older son, and Harvey is holding Amy's hand. Lincoln will be 50 in a few days. I recently posted a photo of the beautiful grown up Amy with her nieces: Here it is again, for your viewing pleasure.

As usual, click on a picture to make it bigger, and select backspace to return to the blog.

Dear friends and family,

We had an important visit with our local oncologist Dr. Anna Kurzyna. For once I had taken careful notes with questions I had, and she patiently listened and responded to each. She never gave any indication that she wanted to hurry. There are tests to be done, and she will be contacting Dr. Mascarenhas at Mt. Sinai to see if there is a drug trial I can get into.

Merwin had one question about me: what is the prognosis? She does not think he should worry abut anything imminent. I was out of the room, so I don't know exactly what she said to him. My main problems are the terrible itching, the fatigue, and the inability to stand in one spot (as I would like to do at the stove) or sit for long without putting my feet up. The sitting problem makes going to the theater, a movie, a restaurant well nigh impossible. The huge spleen is also an issue: it's impinging on my lungs, and I have trouble tying my shoe laces. It's the other three, though that make my life miserable.

I try to move on with my work in spite of it all. I am reading a very good book about Measure for Measure by Harriett Hawkins, an ever-cheerful scholar who could barely speak without breaking into a laugh. I very much enjoy visits from friends (Toby came yesterday), emails (thanks for yours today Jeffery, a real pick-me-up), phone calls from friends and family. Please keep them coming!

We are looking forward to NYC tomorrow. I think it will work very well. Looking forward is the way to go, right?

Love to all,
Bernice

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