Wine Goes With Everything

Mike has a new name, according to his oncologist. It’s N.E.D. Those of you who’ve ever been in the cancer world might be familiar with this term. But for those of you who aren’t, keep reading for the latest update. I promise it’s a good one! (FINALLY!)

Hi everyone. I know it’s been awhile. I just haven’t had the emotional or physical energy to write over the last six weeks. After Mom’s passing, we hurried back to North Carolina to get started on transplant number two and jumped into transplant life with both feet. Keep reading for updates on how all that went.

My mom passed away exactly 8 days ago. It’s taken me as many days to muster up the courage to write anything about it and I still don’t really know what to say. But I needed to get some of my inner thoughts out of me because this is therapy for me. Maybe my therapy session will help you, too.

Please pray for Mom. Her health is declining.

Memento Mori. The Latin phrase means “remember your death.” What a way to start an update! Don’t be alarmed; we’re all still here. But the last ten days have been a stark reminder that humans have a 100% chance of death. Cancer keeps you in a memento mori state of mind.

Mike was {finally} admitted yesterday to begin high dose chemotherapy conditioning for his stem cell transplant. The featured image for this post is the second bag that was hung. As always, the folks here at Duke are phenomenal.

You know how I posted last week that January wasn’t kind to us? Well, February’s acting awfully ornery already. On Monday, we hit another setback. We’re the setback champions! There’s got to be some sort of trophy for weathering the amount of obstacles and disappointments we’ve seen, right? Surely there’s a trophy.

Y’all. January 2025 did not start out promising health and prosperity for our family. We’re praying February will be a bit more kind.

It’s finally here! Collection Day! The technology is so fascinating. Check out the pictures below.

Mike had to get a new type of port for the stem cell collection tomorrow.