My sister visits to help

Today I'm thankful for...

Being healthy Loving relationships with my wife and kids

Having wonderful people to work with at the office

Spending time with Lourdes

Sometimes Lulu and I almost forget that we're facing this battle with cancer. She says that she feels good since end of last week, but I'm not sure that she just wants to put on a "good face"? She hasn't lost her hair yet, but I've noticed cards, magazines, and brochures on all various kinds of hair replacement techniques. From full wigs to half wigs and then a scarf or hat on top. I know that she's been told by all the professionals that she would be losing her hair any time now. What's the chance that they could be wrong? We're both were anticipating with trepidation our trip tomorrow to UCSF. I know that I'm going to make as many contacts and learn about as many people's lives as I can. I hope that we run into our new breast cancer friend Kate. I want to befriend her. I'm not sure why? Maybe because I think that it will give both Lulu and I someone else to share the experiences that we all have been thrust into. I find myself praying that others are getting healthier, just as others have been praying for our family.

For this trip, I had the idea of having the boys, Carter and Thomas, make cards to hand out personally to patients in the infusion center at UCSF. So last Saturday and Sunday I told Lulu my idea and she sat down with the boys to make 30 cards for the patients going through their struggles. In the cards I wanted the boys to write these phases, "Sending you a smile, We care about you, and Wishing you good health." I want to make a difference in just one person's life! My sister and her niece our coming to Reno to be with the kids while Lulu and I go for treatment and tests in SF.

My sister's been great help many times in the last few years. She came to sit with me after my second back surgery last summer, and was here for us when Baby Lourdes was a new born premature baby and struggling in the NICU at St. Mary's. I've never had much of a relationship with my sister Lori, since my parents separated when I was 7 years old (Lori was 12), and my sister lived with our father and I went to live with my mother after the divorce. How funny how life (God) gives us these challenges and we sometimes don't see the positive that come out of the experiences (I have found a sister that I never really knew and in the process of building a relationship with her). Hopefully, she can stay a little longer so we can learn more about each other?

Another positive, though it may seem almost immaterial, is that we're making our trips to SF in the summer time. Trying to make the trip to UCSF every other week over the snowy and sometimes closed highway I-80 pass would be a gamble at best. Lulu is teaching me to always see the positive though the most trying of times. I'm learning so much more about myself during these last two months. Thank you Lulu for teaching me to be a better person! We're off to make our journey tomorrow for the 2nd chemotherapy treatment, and to make some new relationships. I'm just praying to God that the experience is emotionally and physically healing for Lulu? I look forward to sharing a new part of my life with the most important person in my life.