I figured some of you might be wondering how R is doing. He gets that question often when we go to the cancer center. “How are feeling today, R?” Usually the answer is, “I feel good!” Other times there’s a bit of a hesitation. He still gets dizzy, has extreme fatigue and numbness in his feet and hands, but hey, things could be worse!

We were supposed to move from his current medical team that specializes in the first 100 days post transplant (to stabilize the patient) to the long-term follow-up team, which follows him for a year, but we had another hiccup.

Not a huge deal but he got very dizzy early last week and the episode lasted for hours. Turns out his blood counts, which were steadily improving, took a nosedive overnight. He goes in for labs almost every day including some weekend days depending on how his numbers look. They study them closely and frequently.

With his red blood cells having dropped by 20 pts overnight, they decided to give him an infusion of cells and keep him with their team another week.

Presumably, when he goes to the long-term care team he’ll require less trips to Fred Hutch; maybe twice a week and eventually once a week. With freeway construction the trips have been stupid-long and we have use of the carpool lane!

In preparation for his long-term care we had to attend a class and R has been required to see a bunch of specialists to check his “baseline” in areas such as eyes, skin, heart, teeth/gums, range of motion… Now kicks off the period when longterm graft-versus-host-disease is more likely to show up, so they need to know his condition now in case anything changes.

In class, we learned there are still gobs of things he can’t do due to risk of infection. We have to be hyper-vigilant about what he eats due to risk of GI illnesses. He has to report anything different or unusual going on like dry eye, bleeding gums, cramping, rashes/discolorations, etc. For you or me, those things might seem like no big deal. For him, they could be the start of something dangerous they have to nip in the bud.

All this is kind of overwhelming. But…the team at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington Medical Center are gob-smacking amazing. There are not adequate words to describe their expertise, compassion and thoughtfulness. We have not experienced anyone who’s been less than phenomenal. They have their act together. The appointments are always on time. Answers to questions are immediate or near immediate. There’s never been a time when they don’t ask you, “Is there anything I can get you?” They bring water, yogurt, peanut butter and crackers, cheese, broth, etc. No one is grumpy or rushes you. Appointments are moved around at your request for scheduling convenience.

Despite all the fear and uncertainty this has brought us, we never feel alone or uncared for. They lift an enormous burden. They treat us like we’re special EVERY TIME we are there.

I hope you never need cancer care, but if you do, Hutch is world-class. How lucky are we to live in Seattle?