Busy New Year!!!!

My goodness!!!  I hope all of you are having a great start to your New Year.  It has been busy...but good...around here!!  We got both the kiddo's moved to Knoxville.  Rosie's move was a wonderful whirlwind thanks to great help from Fred, T, and K (a good friend of Rosie's from Georgia Tech who is luckily doing an internship with a company in Knoxville this semester). Her room was set up in a flash and is really cute, with the most space she's had in a long time!!  She spent the past couple of weeks begging and cajoling her way into closed classes!  Her charm and good record served her well and she now has everything straight and is cruising along. Fred's return was much less difficult since he has an apartment now, though computer weirdness at the University has made his life a bit complicated, but he is getting his registration straight as well.

Work has been hard.  Pediatrics in winter is always a challenge.  The loss of one of our doctors has made it mentally stressful and caused the need for more work to implement changes in all sorts of things that may not even seem readily apparent. I was happy to help our amazing office staff and Dr. R. plow through the things we needed to do.  However, it has created long days.  Yesterday, one of the nurses asked, "Did you leave your car here overnight on Monday?"  I told her no, looking puzzled.  "It was just here so late!"  Then I remembered. I had been going over the NP protocols after the patients were gone.  So....it has been a number of extra hours.  Next week, coincidentally, we will begin training two new NP's we had already hired. There will be a bit more work connected with that, so.....  I am wishing for the sun.  It has been very rainy and cloudy here.  But, even on sunny days I leave home in the dark and return long after the sun has set.  Oh, well...this too shall pass.  I still love the nurses and doctors I am lucky enough to work with and the kids brighten all my days.

Brent surprised me last week with tickets to the Chattanooga Symphony for a concert of pieces by Ravel.  They included: Pavane pour une infante defunte, Rapsodie Espagnole, and, of course, Bolero. It was an interesting group of attendees!!!  We saw floor length furs, smelling ever so slightly of moth balls, alternating with, tight, minimal cocktail dresses on a really chilly night. The octogenarians of Lookout Mountain were down in the valley with the affected, bohemian youths, one of our favorite grocery check-out clerks...and...us!  While watching the crowd, I wrote several short stories...in my mind....one rather reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor and the other more in keeping with Isaac Bashevis Singer!!!  Perhaps, soon, I will actually write them down.  Anyhow, I fixed a nice dinner and we had a good time at the concert.

Physically, I have been doing well, except for one week of an asthma exacerbation, which is much better now.  I am gradually building my exercise routine back up after the last treatment. The past 3 weeks have been very itchy!!!! Lots of flares in my remaining granulomas and a generalized itchy rash with increasing vitiligo on my stomach and lower back.  Can't believe scan time is already creeping up, as they will be done on 2/24 as prep for the next anti-PD1 infusion in Tampa on 3/2.  As far as we can tell all other members of the peptide/MDX 1106 trial at Moffitt continue to do well.  We did learn that the final cohort of resected, 10mg/kg folks has begun.  Brent says that all info on anti-PD1 has completely dried up.  This is probably related to the many new trials that have begun in multiple sites in the US and even in the UK.  While that is a good thing...the silence is a bit frustrating.

May you buy your bread only from bakers who are nothing at all like Gimpel the Fool! - c