Chemo has started

Ben at Papi’s house (my father). He has recently lost his hair...

Ben has had a positive attitude about all the medicines he's been receiving. Every Monday for the past 4 weeks, he has had two shots in his thigh muscles, which were very painful. He keeps saying, "How many more days until the pokes?". This is, of course, just part of all the other "pokes" and chemo drugs he's been getting.

A positive sign, if there can be one, is that there seems to be no leukemic cells in his bone marrow from his last bone marrow biopsy (Sept. 5th). He is now in remission. The challenge now, is to keep him in remission and bombard his body with chemo that will completely destroy any leukemia that is hiding or dormant. If he continues to respond positively to his chemo, he will need to continue the chemo protocol for the next two years.

He has lost much of his hair again and he is more sensitive about it, since he is older and more aware. He eats constantly, from the steroids that he has to take, but at least, so far, he is not waking up three times a night to eat, as he did in 2003.

He is a real trooper and he's taking all this with much courage.

On t'aime beacoup, Ben!