My 50th wedding anniversary is a mere 2 weeks after my wife’s 25th Birthday. OK, it’s a hook line to grab your interest. But there is a truth to it if you read on !! To be fair, there is no photography component to this mid-month blog post, photography returns on the 1st of each month. This blog post is a feel-good story, a miracle on several levels if you will. If I lose a few subscribers, well I’ll be a husband and dad for the rest of my life and a photographer falls well short of those monikers. The story highlights my wife’s strength of faith and my reflection on just how fortunate I am, as are my children.  

The beginning…

   The story starts back in the mid-’90s and jumps ahead to tonight at 10:50 pm when my wife, Victoria, will celebrate her 25th rebirth due to a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT). Apologies if it’s boring to some but writing this story is therapeutic to me, ensuring I do not ever take tomorrow for granted !! There is probably no one person that has heard the entire story with all the nuances that I’ll share here.  

    My wife is fortunate to come from a large and very close Italian family. Vic’s closest aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the mid-’90s. “Dolly” was a force and a charismatic personality in the family and loved by all !! Her cancer moved fairly quickly and the battle was soon lost. The impact of this would stay with my wife in the coming years. As my wife grew into her mid to later 40’s, our kids now grown and out of college save for our youngest son, a junior in college, in Boston as good fortune would have it. Vic looked to avoid a similar cancer that claimed her favorite aunt. She pursued her ObGyn for a hysterectomy. Not so fast the Dr cautioned, a preliminary procedure was scheduled for early October 1998. It was determined she was cancer-free but was indeed a candidate for a complete hysterectomy. Vic was thrilled and chose an elective surgery date right after New Years 1999. The phrase “elective surgery” becomes very important to the miracle of this story.  

   With the elective surgery date set for early January, Vic is scheduled for a simple blood draw to archive her blood for the planned January surgery. The blood draw took place in early December, a mere two months following her October procedure and a clean bill of health. This would be the final step before the elective surgery just a few weeks off. Vic’s blood was recorded and stored in case of complications during the January hysterectomy. The surgery takes place just before the 2nd weekend in January 1999 and all is uneventful…until Sunday morning.  

   I still vividly remember my mother in law Grace and Vic’s two sisters, Bettyann and Marigrace visiting Vic following the surgery on Sunday morning. Along around 11 am my daughter comes by to visit her mom. The room is a bit crowded, so, with the possibility of the conversation turning to all things female, I decided to go to the cafeteria and get a coffee. I’m gone no more than 20 minutes, as I’m walking back down the hallway on my return I see my two sisters-in-law out in the hall crying and my daughter approaching me in tears !! My daughter is a pretty unflappable personality, I think, what the hell is going on. My daughter tells me there are Drs in the room and I need to hear what they’re talking about with VIc.  

   I go in the room to find an elderly man dressed in a long white coat looking very doctorly talking to my wife, he is backed up by a newbie, likely learning how to deliver bad news. I look at my wife and she is without emotion, stunned may be a better characterization. I ask the Dr. what is going on, in the most matter of fact manner tells me your wife’s white blood cell count is dramatically elevated. He goes on to say this is likely some type of Leukemic condition or blood cancer. Because of your fairly young age, he tells Vic, we’d like to do a test for the Philadelphia Chromosome ASAP. The Philly Chromosome is a mutation of the # 9 and # 22 chromosomes and there is no known reason.  The mutation causes the white blood cells to multiply at an increasingly dangerous rate until the blood simply can no longer flow thru the veins and arteries.  

   The test for the Philadelphia Chromosome is an outpatient procedure scheduled for early February. This particular test involves a local anesthetic to the pelvic or hip region. This area of the skeleton is where bone marrow is closest to the surface of the bone. The male technician explains what will happen during the procedure, if you need to take a break that would be completely normal. He suggests Vic grab hold of something to diffuse her discomfort.  My hand becomes her target and the power of her grip gave clue to the discomfort she must have been experiencing. A square tube about 10” long is positioned, inside is a large needle with a T handle on top which is used to penetrate the pelvic bone-mass. With my wife lying on her side, the T handle is repeatedly drawn up the shaft of the instrument and thrust down with considerable forced about a dozen times. Each time burrowing further into the pelvic bone to finally extract bone marrow for biopsy analysis. The 8-10 minute procedure is completed. Vic rests for a while, my hand returns to some normalcy. We begin

   With all the whirlwind attention on the Leukemia diagnosis, we still had a follow-up visit with her ObGyn Dr. after the surgery.  Standard pathology tests were done on the organs removed during the surgery. Shockingly, a “clear cell carcinoma in situ” was discovered in the pathology tests. I’ll never forget that phrase, in situ means contained within the tissue it originated in; it had not yet spread thank God!! The Dr indicated if the elective surgery had been put off to deal with the Leukemia the undetected and aggressive carcinoma would have had catastrophic consequences in a few short months !! The Dr. went onto say he would be presenting at a conference soon and would share Vic’s near miss story. Sure enough, Vic had to transition to an ObGyn Oncologist to monitor her female health going forward.  On her first visit with the new oncologist back in Connecticut, he tells her, “I’ve heard all about your case !!”  Miracle  # 1.   

   Pathology tests would confirm she did indeed test positive for the Philadelphia Chromosome.  The St. Francis Hospital Doctors diagnosis was CML, aka Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. The only positive news we received that day was that a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) could under the right circumstances actually provide a cure for the CML condition. We were told the Bone Marrow donor list would be cross-referenced with Vic’s high-resolution blood analysis. In the meantime, we were told to have each of Vic’s siblings and her children’s blood analyzed in the hopes of finding a bone marrow match. Her oldest sister Bettyann and younger twins, Ray and Marigrace quickly step forward to determine if a one in 16 chance of a marrow match was present. I seem to remember both sisters were a partial match, but not a good option at this stage. Unfortunately, none of our children would provide an exact match either, more on a family marrow match later in the story. Back in 1999, the Bone Marrow donor list was around 4 million donors worldwide.  Surely there would be a match somewhere !!  

   The Drs. indicated the John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington was Connecticut’s go-to Hospital for a BMT.  About 6 weeks pass and we finally received word for an appointment in mid-April of ‘99 at the John Dempsey Hospital.  With my mother in law along for support, we arrived for an early afternoon appointment expecting to hear the logistics of a BMT and when the procedure would be scheduled.  Eager to learn the next step we sat through a 2+ hour appointment detailing the progression of the disease.   Ultimately waiting for news that a donor was found and we could move forward with a transplant date. The news never came, rather, the Dr recommended an Interferon Therapy to slow the progression of the Leukemia but ultimately life expectancy would be 3-5 years. The Dr. delivering the news offered no compassion, he was essentially without emotion one way or another, a seasoned pro of negativity and a face and personality I would not soon forget !!   

   The three of us got up, still dazed by the sobering news and took the long silent walk to the car. It took till about the lobby for my competitive personality to kick in, I told Vic as we walked through the main doors, “we will never set foot in this hospital again” !! I never for a second thought we’d lose this battle, but the choice was to begin “Interferon Therapy” effectively eliminating the option of a BMT for at least 6-8 months once the therapy regime began, or seek another opinion.  

The Dana Farber…

    I had some time to collect my thoughts and that week I called a former photography student of mine who happened to be an oncologist in Springfield, MA. I told Paul the story and he told me you must go see this Doctor at the Dana Fabre Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston. Turns out the Dr. was the Department Chair of the Hematological Oncology department for the Dana Farber, the best of the best !!

   We get an appointment at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) at the beginning of June as I recall. Vic’s Mom and older sister Bettyann join me during our first visit to Boston. I remember this initial visit like it was yesterday ! The DFCI is remarkably organized and on time. Almost immediately Vic’s blood is drawn and she returns to the waiting area. Soon, we are escorted back to an area with dozens of consultation rooms.  It is important to note that throughout this Leukemia journey Vic is asymptomatic. There are no outward signs she is ill, she’s still working, no loss of energy and most importantly in no pain whatsoever because of the CML condition. Soon, Dr. Antin, the department head of all blood cancers enters the room and introduces himself. A slight man no more than his mid-’40s with slightly greying hair.  He looks at Vic’s blood draw on the computer and explains the best course of action is a Bone Marrow Transplant. Dr. goes onto say that a BMT involving Vic’s own “cord cell” marrow is not an option for CML. It had already been determined none of Vic’s siblings or her children provided a satisfactory match. An outside donor could produce an Allogeneic BMT, which may offer a cure under the right circumstances. Surely a suitable donor would be found in the worldwide Bone Marrow Donor list. 

   Vic’s character is quite, never drawing attention to herself and most of all, always deferring to me for decisions and planning. I remember this sequence like it was yesterday, Vic is sitting slightly closer to the Dr. and I am seated slightly behind and to her left, her Mom is seated behind and on her right, while sister Bettyann is standing alongside her Mom. The atmosphere is serious and quiet when Vic asks the Dr. in a strong and direct voice, “what is the prognosis following the BMT” ??  The Dr.’s quote is etched in my memory, “I’ve seen grandmothers sail through this and I’ve seen Tri-Athletes melt, we just never know”. Vic pauses, contemplates the gravity of what she had just heard, without looking towards me or her Mom for guidance, says to the Dr. “let’s do this”. That one singular response set in motion a series of events to this day I wonder if I would have had the same conviction and courage she showed that June morning in 1999. Some people project their confidence and strength for all to see, while others keep it tucked away until the need arises; Vic clearly had an inner strength I was not fully aware of, even after nearly 25 years of marriage.  

    I would ask Vic many times after the BMT how she was so quick to decide on that life-changing course of action, her response was always the same, “I knew it was not my time to die”.  The mere fact she used the word die indicates she was fully aware of the consequences of her decision. Vic has always been very mindful of a higher power. It was her faith and conviction in that higher power that carried her entire family through a journey that statically had incredible odds against the ultimate outcome.  

   The Dana Farber assigned a social worker to Vic’s case, Debbie was an upbeat young woman whose purpose was to provide support and guidance leading up to the BMT.  She sent us home that first day saying “don’t worry, we’ll find you a donor” !!  Following this initial visit, we would travel to the Dana Farber every few weeks to monitor Vic’s blood counts, each time meeting with Deb to update us on the search for a donor. She would explain to us the process of selecting a donor would be a tiered process. Blood is made up of 6 “antigens”. Within those 6 antigens, there are a dozen or more “markers” revealed in a “high resolution” scan of her blood makeup. In a perfect world, 3 volunteer donors matching all 6 antigens would then have a high-resolution blood analysis done. Out of the 72+ makers in their respective Hi-Res scans, the best-matched donor would be chosen to donate their Marrow for Vic’s BMT.   

   While the Dana Farber never indicated Vic’s condition was urgent they did want to see the transplant happen during the remaining calendar year. In early August of ‘99, we were summoned to the Dana to discuss a donor had been found. The sobering news of that visit was a 6 antigen match was never found, but there was a 5 antigen match found, quite appropriately in Italy. The Dr. never really spoke in terms odds other than to say that BMT’s are unique to each patient with life-threatening possibilities for 5 years or more following the BMT. In every way, we found both the Dana Farber and Brigham and Women’s not only cutting edge in approach and technology, but in their positivity of information shared.  

   Moving forward the Dr. explained the National Bone Marrow Donor database had been exhausted and a single 5-antigen match was likely the best donor we could hope for. If a BMT were to be Vic’s choice the wheels would begin with her decision that day. It’s almost as though Vic knew she couldn’t burden her family with such a difficult decision and if she was going to go through with the BMT, she had to be all in for the challenge. Vic’s decision was clear, to move forward with the BMT. An appointment later in August was scheduled for a full-body scan where exact imaging of Vic’s lungs would be recorded. Four ceramic casts were made from those scans to shield her lungs from radiation. A thorough general health checkup, particularly with our dentist was completed in Connecticut. Vic would begin her 7-week journey on September 10th by staying the first week at the Patrick Thompson house during the prep phase for the BMT.

It’s a Small World…

   To illustrate the world-class experience the DFCI and BWH provide, directly across the street from the BWH main entrance is a three-story house owned by the hospital called the Patrick Thompson House. The house is named in memory of Patrick Thompson who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, ironically the same hospital where Vic was first diagnosed with Leukemia. The Thompson family traveled to the Dana Farber in August 1985 in the hopes of finding a cure for Patrick. Sadly, on January 5th, 1986 Patrick passed away at the age of 15. By May of 1987, the Patrick Thompson house was opened for family members of qualifying BMT patients at the BWH. Fortunately for my family and especially Vic, we met the requirements and applied for resident status at the Thompson house. My mother in law would move into the house 24/7 after sister Bettyann left a week or so following the transplant. The cost per night was $30.00, which by Boston’s standards was heaven sent !! During her stay at the house, my mother in law would come to know other family members of BMT patients at the BWH. There was even one BMT patient who used the house as a “step down” in his recovery of an Autologous BMT, a less risky BMT than the Allogeneic BMT Vic underwent. I know the support and commitment my mother in law and Vic’s siblings, Bettyann, Margirace, and Ray seemed natural to their family mindset, from my vantage point it was extraordinary and clearly integral in Vic’s successful recovery.

  In spite of the length of this story, I simply cannot leave out the support our friends put forth as Vic prepared for the BMT. Dear friend, Debbie Asaro began an email chain of many of Vic’s closest friends and provided daily updates on Vic’s journey.  Baseball coaches and family friends put together a town wide fund raiser dinner at the local Elks club while Vic was in the recovery phase in Boston.

BMT prep…

     In the context of a 2nd miracle, it’s important to understand the odds of a complete 6-antigen BMT matched donor, much less that of a 5 antigen match that Vic ultimately received. Of every three BMT patients, one will not survive 100 days, the second one of those three with not survive 5 years. Of the remaining one survivor, 50 percent would live the rest of their life with some form of “Graft versus Host Disease” (GvHD). Essentially the new marrow being of full strength can recognize some of Vic’s own tissue as foreign and respond or attack in many adverse ways. Acute GvHD is usually the general term when a patient loses their battle in the early stages of recovery.  A second more common form is Chronic GvHD, which presents in many chronic conditions the BMT patient must learn to deal with on a day-to-day basis, provided they survive. Once back in Rocky Hill there were a few bumps in Vic’s road to recovery. As we would look back, none were life-threatening, but the mystery of the unknown can be disconcerting and 5 years seemed like an eternity far off in the future.

   Follwoing a quick trip to Disney World over the Labor Day weekend Vic would begin receiving 6 successive days of Total Body Irradiation (TBI) in conjunction with powerful chemotherapy. The irradiation and chemo started September 10th and was designed to essentially wipe out her immune system which is a basic function of Bone Marrow. The plan is with Vic’s existing immune system eliminated, the new marrow will not be rejected as a foreign or unknown presence in her body. Vic’s sister Bettyann would stay at a house across from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) for the next few weeks until my mother in law had shaken a cold and would take over the room at the Patrick Thompson house. Following a day of rest on the 16th the transplant would happen on September 17th.  

   I don’t have much specific memory of the events of the prep week, sister in law Bettyann shared the following details.  Vic’s first prep day was Friday September 10th with Steve staying overnight and into Saturday.  Steve returned home on Saturday night September 11th with plans to come back the next day with their daughter Staci to spend the day.  Vic seemed fine all day Sunday and Steve and Staci left about 10 pm and arrived back in CT around midnight.  No sooner in the house, I called Steve indicating Vic was having a hard time dealing with him gone.  After some time on the phone Steve got back in the car and arrived back in Boston about 2:30 am.  He stayed till about 6 am when he left to get back for work as he would be missing time later in the week for the BMT day.  Vic took strength from Steve being close by during that first week heading towards the BMT.  Steve indicated writing this story he never really saw the anxiety that I witnessed.  However, these events are some of the more vivid memories I have of the Hell, my sister, when through !!

  The Transplant…

  The actual BMT takes place at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a short walk from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In the 6 week recovery following Vic’s BMT, we would come to know many of the 10 patients in her pod, which was devoted strictly to BMT patients. The pods would be sterilized daily and entry into the electronically secured pods allowed only close family visitors who had to “scrub in” in sinks outside of the pods, as well as wearing face masks during all visits. Sadly, we would see the aforementioned odds come to pass. One of the first BMT patients we met passed in only a few weeks following his transplant, a young man still in his 20’s !!  

   Even 20 years removed from the BMT, we marvel at just how high tech the entire process was and how dependent the success was on factors far out of the Drs. control much less our own, save for Vic’s faith !! To this day it’s a testament to the goodness of strangers. The 5 antigen anonymous donor was found in Italy and essentially volunteers to go through the same extraction process, only for several hours, harvesting bone marrow from the same pelvic region as Vic did for the Philadelphia Chromosome test. The donor is cautioned that general lower body aches and back discomfort could range from 2-4 week’s following the marrow extraction and could result in missing work !! The donor could be male or female, their identity could not be divulged for a minimum of 5 years, elects to donate bone marrow to a complete stranger they likely will never meet. A courier from the Dana Farber gets on a plane early the morning of September 17th and flies direct to Italy. A small container with Medical Hazardous material decals imprinted on the side of the cooler waits at the terminal in Italy. A return flight arrives back in Boston later that same evening with the precious life-saving marrow.   

   Around 9 pm the Drs. and nurses begin the prep process, they sedate Vic, and say, “we’ll see you on the other side”. Shortly after 10 pm a bag of plasma that began the day in Italy is brought in and hung on an ordinary stand for intravenous fluids. This is the Bone Marrow that would slowly be transfused into a “Hickman port” or connection directly into Vic’s jugular veins on both sides of her neck. Given the extraordinary measures to get the marrow from Europe earlier in the day, the actual transplant procedure was very anti-climatic. The Dr. tells me the infusion of marrow will begin by 11 pm, and “we should know by 2 am”. “Know what” I remember asking ? The Dr. explains, if her system rejects the marrow she’ll simply pass while sleeping. A whirlwind of emotions are being processed, none of which ever involved Vic not waking up. At 10:50 pm on Friday, September 17th, 1999 the infusion of the donor’s bone marrow was begun and suddenly I am all alone in the room with Vic. I will admit, not being able to see in the darkened room I would check her respirations dozens of times over the course of the next three hours. I seem to remember drifting off to sleep around 4 am. In each private pod was an oversized reclining chair that also served as an overnight resting place for close family members. I don’t recall how many nights I stayed over, but it was many during the course of the next 6 weeks. During her stay at BWH, I would come to know many of the team who cared for her. They would often kid me how they could always tell if I was sleeping !!

Recovery…

   In the days following the transplant Vic’s blood was drawn and measured several times a day to assess her recovery. The first week or so her White Blood cell count was zero, finally, the first signs that we were on the road to recovery were seen in a positive white blood cell count, as I recall of 4. Normal white blood cell count is 4000 – 10,000. The time immediately following the transplant is the only time that unexpectedly affected me. About 10 days after Vic’s Full Body Irradiation and Chemo treatments her hair began to fall out. Twice a day a nurse would come in and brush her hair removing clumps of dead hair at an alarming rate, I remember feeling sick to my stomach seeing her without something covering her head.  Around this same time, the anti-rejection drug Cyclosporine in high dosage was showing it’s side effects. The large black capsule had a distinct skunk-like smell which, Vic found difficult to actually swallow the twice-daily capsule.  The drug also causes something known as “round face” where the patient’s face swells and produces facial hair to extremes.   

  Within a week Vic’s hair is gone and her face has swelled to a point she looks like a completely different person, and distinctly sick looking.  Vic never really said, but I believe going from no physical symptoms and in seemingly perfect health a week before the BMT to the state she was now in hit her hard. She would have mood swings and even turn away close friends and even family visitors. With me now home and back at work, I would get phone calls during the middle of the workday, “you’d better get up here”. There were probably a dozen times over the next 4 weeks I would leave work unexpectedly for Boston, spend overnight and leave about 6 am to be back at work by 8 am. There was actually a time when my boss told me the owner of the car dealership I worked for was getting tired of my inconsistent workweek. I saw right through this passive-aggressive move and told him in no uncertain terms my employment was well down my list of priorities, I never heard any more about missing work !!  

  Throughout our journey family would step forward at every turn. During the two months Vic was in Boston, my daughter Staci moved back home with me in spite of having her own apartment across town. My oldest son Steve out of college and working in Pennsylvania made the long drive on many weekends.  My youngest son Scott was in his fall semester @ Bentley College and was able to visit often. 

   The last two weeks of October, Vic’s made steady medical progress and was discharged 6 weeks following the transplant.  With discharge getting close the Drs. explained that Vic’s immune system is dangerously low and the house needs to be thoroughly cleaned with bleach in the areas the Vic was likely to frequent.  Once again, sisters Bettyann, Marigrace and daughter Staci step up along with dear friends who will know who they are, Nancy, Diane and Debbie.  Virtually every surface in the entire house is washed with bleach, including inside and out of the washer and dryer !! In due time we got to know other local BMT recovering patients back in Connecticut who were not quarantined for a long period of time or even required to wear a mask.  Sadly, not all of them enjoyed the success that Vic did.

Now Home…

   My mother in law came to live with us 24/7 after Vic returned home for the next year and her sisters and brother were in constant contact throughout the long recovery period. Vic’s family removed all daily burdens on me, I didn’t pay much attention to photography during that quarantine year leaving me to simply be Vic’s soulmate and enjoy my mother in law’s cooking. As I recall, it took a full year to get the White Blood count into the 3000 range. Following Vic’s discharge, she would be quarantined for a full year once back in Rocky Hill. She couldn’t go out in public places, weekly return visits to the Dana Farber would require face masks and head covering. Naturally, any family member who took the ride back to Boston had to be in perfect health. Vic interacted with almost no one outside of the immediate family for a full year.

   Once the year of quarantine passed Vic would gather with other cancer survivors, as it happened from our own street who we knew through the common link of our children growing up together. They supported one another through each other’s own recovery process. Vic would often tell me their discussions many times would center around the impact their illness had on their respective spouses. I never looked at Vic’s ordeal as a burden on me; it was a one-day at a time process that we needed to go through to get back to the good part of life. The one time, a funny story now, but not when it happened took place on Oct. 5, 1999, my 25th wedding anniversary.   I went to work @ 4 am so I could leave at noon and travel to Boston to spend my 25th wedding anniversary with Vic. I left the house @ 3:30 am, go to an all-night gas station and get a coffee. I was driving an older Honda Civic my son used in college, got great gas mileage and with the frequency I was going back and forth to visit Vic helped out a lot. With no cup holder and having to shift the manual transmission, the coffee spills and the car begins to weave on West St. as I try to deal with the mess in the car. A police officer sees the car weaving and immediately lights me up and pulls me over. I convince him I wasn’t drinking and was in fact on my way to work. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a great start to my day. I get to the car dealership in Cheshire and being the first time dealing with the alarm code in the showroom I mess up disarming the security system. This sends a signal to the local police department who are quickly on site. I explain the circumstances and the officer believes me and all is OK. Not so fast, when my own boss shows up around 7ish he tells me the big boss got a call early in the morning from the Police Dept. and he is smoking mad at whoever messed up the alarm code @ 4 am. Back then, in my late 40’s I probably wasn’t so good at keeping my thoughts to myself. I suggested to my own boss, given the circumstances surrounding my Oct. 5th, 4 am start to the workday that he should keep the big boss away from me. The possibility he’d be looking for a new painter, and me a new job was ever present !!

   Now today on the 25th anniversary, I’ll try and put myself in the same mindset of 25 years ago, this time having the comfort of knowing a full recovery lie ahead. Remembering back to the statistical odds of only one in three survives beyond 5 years, and with that one survivor, 50 % will experience some form of Graft versus Host Disease. To this day, Vic has never shown symptoms of GvHD and is on no meds for Leukemia !! It’s interesting to note if one of Vic’s siblings or children had been a bone marrow match because the marrow had a family link the chance of being completely cured diminishes over time. The Drs. would explain because the marrow is so similar, initially, the survival odds are much better, however, the chance that the Leukemic condition that once existed could resurface is higher. With a successful family BMT match, the Leukemic condition is referred to as “in remission”. In Vic’s case with an Allogeneic BMT, after 10 years her Leukemic condition transitioned to as “cured”!

   There are several takeaways for me from the journey beyond the obvious of saving Vic’s life, # 1. By in large, people who have NOT gone through the process of a cancer diagnosis or experienced a survivor’s story believe that cancer ultimately has a negative outcome. Case in point, and if Michael P has gotten this far in the story, I will again apologize for my ill-advised response. A close friend and baseball coach extraordinaire who I’ve competed against for years knew of Vic’s Leukemia and eventual BMT. I didn’t see him for several years after the BMT, we get together and he asks me “how is your wife doing?” In my exuberance to show how successful Vic’s recovery had gone? I reply to his question, “Oh that’s all over with” the look that came over his face was like I’d just punched him directly in the gut !! I immediately knew the thought that went through his mind and quickly apologized and assured him that Vic was well on her way to a complete recovery. Only after going in and out of the DFCI and BWH so often, did I realize, there are far more success stories than tragedies, and that ratio gets better every day !!  # 2, Faith has no limits !!

   A few weeks away is our 50th wedding anniversary, I’ve wrestled with deciding the importance of 50 years married or 25 years out from a BMT…25 years and “Let’s do this” carries the day !!