Gretchen Update

After my last two posts, I have received an unprecedented number of comments.  Many of you also responded by email, phone, or text messages.  I want to apologize to all of you who communicated to me by not having responded personally to each of you.  I have been somewhat distracted over the last week or so, so I want to take this opportunity to thank you one and all for your heartfelt concern and best wishes for Gretchen (and me too) during this time of crisis. 

The outpouring of empathy, caring, and support for Gretchen after this awful accident has been incredible.  This does not surprise me in the least, because she is so well-loved.  As anyone who knows her will attest, she is one of the most loving, caring, and giving human beings on this planet.  All of us who know her would have been greatly diminished (myself especially) had she not survived this fall.  But thankfully she did.  I can't tell you how lucky I am to still have her!

She has been working hard and is responding well to her rehab therapy.  She is now walking without assistance and has been cleared to come back home on Friday.  Yay!  Yesterday we met Jeff and Christine at an Italian restaurant in Salem, NH to celebrate her 60th birthday.  We all had a good time.  I couldn't help but think how close a call it was that that celebration almost didn't take place.

Holly and Ryan are coming in from San Francisco again this weekend, so we plan to have a quiet dinner at home Friday along with Jeff and Christine.  A fire in the fireplace should warm the place up to make it a comfortable homecoming for Gretchen.

Over the past year and a half as I have been undergoing infusion therapy for my MM, I often sat in a window cubicle overlooking the Beth Israel Hospital across the street on Brookline Ave..  I would idly wonder what went on in that building.  Little did I know or could I possible imagine that it would be the place where one of the best neurosurgeons in Boston would one day save my wife's life!

Our paths are about to geographically converge in a confluence of events.  On March 18, she has an appointment at BI at 8:30 for a CT scan and to see her neurosurgeon, Dr. Alterman at 9:00, while I have a blood draw scheduled at DFCI across the street at 8:45, as well as my monthly meeting with the nurses and my Zometa infusion.  I think we'll be able to juggle things to manage this twofer.