Janet on Monday June 16th

Dear friends,

Janet continues to try to heal. A third pleuredesis was done today to try to get the lung to stop draining fluid. They used a different chemical this time. We are very anxious that it will work.

The photo below shows her at about 9 pm on Monday. She has a chart showing the drain level as a function of time. She and I take readings and chart her progress.

As you can see she is looking fine in all respects except she is tired and in a little pain from the catheter in her right side that drains the lung fluids.

I keep telling her that she looks so beautiful with her smile and lovely hair.

Her spirits are very good and she is strong. I marvel at this. She tells me that she can actually feel the love and care from so many of you. She is not making this up. It is real and it gives her strength and courage. Those are her words. I can hear it in her voice and see it in her smile. It gives me strength.

Special thanks to Colleen Hood for passing on the latest news of the dance community and the Kismet dancers. She gave Janet an MP-3 player with lots of good dance music on it. Janet listens to it to buoy her spirits. She loved the group photo of her dance class and insisted I print it out so that she can post it on the room wall. I have a few other pictures of her as scientist, dancer, and mom. She points them out to the nurses who are able to get an inkling of what kind of patient they have in their care.

Janet does not watch the TV. She reads the newspaper every day. She gets up and walks about a bit as best she can with the tube.

So, let us continue to cheer her on and as always, prayers are especially welcome.

It remains too soon for visitors or phone calls, but Janet assures me that she is looking forward to the day we can have a dance festival so that she can admire all her dance friends.

The big rush of information on doctors and treatments centers has abated. That's OK. We will thank you individually as we can when things settle down, but the info we got was great!
We will take her to Hopkins for a second opinion for treatment and we hope Kaiser will agree to a referral. At the moment my son GW and I are collecting information on chemo drugs and therapies. Dane Choe (a friend of Dr. James Lee who is a colleague where I work) has a mother who is being treated successfully at Hopkins. Dane sent me a list-sequence of the drugs that his mom has taken at Hopkins that have kept her alive for 4 years after she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Janet hopes she will get such a chance. Thanks Dane!

Janet's room has a wonderful very large window and she enjoys watching the clouds and thunderstorms go by.

george quinn