msgeek wrote: Last year, my husband was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer somewhat similar to leukemia and lymphoma. Around January it looked like he was going to freaking DIE. Then members of my family helped him get into treatment at City of Hope.
Today, Richie is thriving. He got monoclonal antibody treatment at CoH and that knocked out the cancer. While the myeloma was on the ropes, with numbers close to normal, he was given a stem cell transplant. It's been 3 months since the transplant and things are proceeding amazingly well.
Hello folks, just got back home after a week's vacation in the Twin Cities; had a great time, but the hilarious truth of the matter is I'd've had WAY more time to spend with the BR DVD set & posting feedback on BZ if I'd just stayed home in Madison
Apologies for the delay in getting back to this thread; I had no laptop or cellphone with me (yeah, I'm a hopelessly Thoreau-esque Luddite), so I was resigned to stopping by the side-door coffee shop's public computer in a local library for 15 minutes every morning to arrange meeting up with friends that day. But, moving right along.
Before I move on to postings in other BZ threads, I just wanted to send out a message of thanks this holiday season to the health and well-being of everyone who means the most to us in our lives. I just got back from a week's worth of drinking, dining, carousing, movie-&-theater-going and hanging out with many such people in my own life. But I'm also very thankful to have just spent the last hour catching up on all "Special Edition - Final Cut" discussions from the last week, and can't wait to keep devouring the new DVD set and sharing our thoughts about it in the coming weeks and months.
Msgeek, my very sincere thanks for sharing your and your husband's story, and so glad to hear that his condition has stabilized and hopefully completely reversed. That makes all other things (BR-related, etc.) truly pale in comparison. I just visited a longtime friend in Minneapolis, a painter (as it happens, named Rachel) who actually lost her husband two years ago to a very similar condition; he was only 40. She really did miraculously well in the aftermath, but I was still totally honored and grateful to have known her at that time in her life, and be able to encourage her to stay strong and keep living her life fully, at her own pace and her own time. I finally met her new boyfriend last week (they've been together for 6 months now), and he's an immensely talented, intelligent, affectionate and friendly guy with a hilariously twisted sense of humor. He does art-direction work for several local theaters in the Twin Cities...and he even knows how to read tea leaves
Happy Hannukah / Christmas / Kwanzaa / BR Ultimate Collection season to all of you and your loved ones