Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off To Work We Go

Rip Van Winkle arrived just about the same time as Jim and Charley did on Saturday.  Ernie said that if someone had offered him a million dollars to stay awake Sunday, he could not have done it.  He did rally for the Chicago concert on Sunday (excellent) and for dinner on Monday with a former student and dear friend, Javin Hutchinson visiting from London, and his girl friend.  .   

Amy and Javin

After our big night out with Javin, it was hard to get going.  We had to be at "work" today at 7:30.  As I write this, Ernie is finishing chemo #5--now he is more than half done with the standalone chemo! We are finally allowing ourselves to look ahead and to starting to ask questions about the next phase. 

We are told that chemoradiation includes only 1 chemo drug plus radiation.  The radiation will be 5 days per week but only takes about 15 minutes.  The chemo in this phase will be given orally rather than through an IV.  So, our trips to the hospital will be shorter but more frequent.  If Ernie's white cell counts hold up and he doesn't have to skip any weeks of chemo, we could start chemoradiation the first week in October. This gets us home in time for Thanksgiving.  The party happiest about this is the apartment rental company.  Our lease had us leaving September 30.  In our optimism, we forgot about the inevitable delays.  We will continue to take things one day at a time and not get too invested in a move date yet.