Springtime in the Garden

Dear friends, greetings from Tiverton House. The weather here has been mild the past couple of weeks since I received my T cell infusion. We’ve been able to get out on walks around the university campus and Westwood Village, wearing our face masks and avoiding close contact with people. This morning the weather was cool, and drizzle was threatening. We walked north across the campus to the sculpture garden where the trees were in full purple bloom, with blossoms strewn over the green grass as the sun peeked out. The scent of the trees filled the air, so strongly that we could smell them through our masks.

Years ago, I received a young jacaranda tree as a gift, and we planted it in our front yard. I love this tree. We can trim it severely each year, but it grows with exuberance each spring, blanketing our yard with purple and fragrance.

As you may know, Roslyn and I are residing here for the duration of the study’s mandatory 28 days of monitoring for side effects. My luck has been holding, and I’ve had very few side effects. I may be losing some hair, probably from the chemo, but mostly I’ve been blessed with lack of symptoms. I didn’t suffer from the CRS that I did last time around, so I didn’t have to return to the hospital. CRS occurs when cancer cells are killed in large numbers, so we worried that lack of CRS would indicate that the T cells didn’t work this time. My doctor assured me that some patients avoided CRS and still had complete remission of their lymphoma. We will find out or sure when I have my next PET/CT scan.

It’s difficult to be patient here. The hotel is nice, but it’s not home. COVID restrictions are still in place here, especially due to the guests and their various medical vulnerabilities. We miss our family and friends and long to get back to normal life. Our faithful friends often reach out to ask how we are, which is kind of them. I maintain an attitude of gratitude, which is not only appropriate but easy to do given the many blessings that I have received.

I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon. God Bless you all.