The Gift of Friendship

A warm hello to our friends and family. Thank you for your support and encouragement, your notes, phone calls and prayers. Each one has been a gift.

What a week we have just had!! Friends from Saskatoon came for a visit. Last Wednesday, Brenda & Dan Craig arrived. They will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary this summer, and decided to take a trip as part of their anniversary celebration. Luckily for us, they chose Seattle as their destination. Julie & Brad Evanson arrived on Friday to join the fun. Both the Craigs and the Evansons are good friends from Resurrection Lutheran Church. They were able to find a wonderful bed and breakfast in the Capital Hill neighbourhood to serve as the base for their Seattle adventures. Brenda acted as our head tour guide and ensured each day was filled with adventure. Every day the Craigs, Evansons and Thiessens set off to see the sites, armed with sensible shoes, tour books, maps, bus schedules and exact change. Arnie and I had a few mornings apart, to attend medical appointments. Arnie and I also spent most afternoons at our apartment, resting for a few hours while the others carried on without us. All in all, it was a fabulous visit.

Here are some of our highlights:

*Basking in day after day of warm sunny weather

*Wandering around the yachts on South Lake Union

*Visiting the Space Needle to see the Seattle skyline

*Learning the early history of Seattle through the entertaining Underground Tour (Arnie stayed above ground, safely away from the dust, water, mold, dead mice and rusting antiquities....)

*Touring Volunteer Park and climbing the water tower to see the sites

*Winning tickets to the Seattle Mariners game (Brad & Dan attended; Arnie watched on TV)

*Shopping for bargains with the girls at Nordstrom's Rack and Ross's (My emerald green sneakers are very comfy.)

*Enjoying many yummy restaurant suppers together (We won't forget the giant piece of Granny Smith apple pie and the towering serving of 7-Layer Texas Funeral Chocolate Cake we shared!!)

*Relaxing and visiting together on the roof top garden of our apartment building, watching the sun set.

Our time together passed so quickly and our friends have returned to Saskatoon, leaving us with many happy memories. Thanks for the card they delivered filled with well wishes from other friends at Resurrection and the beautiful prayer shawl Arnie received.

It's Day +61 since Arnie's stem cell transplant and our medical team is very happy with his progress. At the end of last week, Arnie's CMV count began to decrease. Yahoo!!! The foscarnet is working well and we were able to reduce the dose to once a day. Now Arnie only has to infuse medications into his Hickman catheter for four hours a day, instead of eight. His GVHD rash appears to be improving on the PUVA (medical tanning) and we hope to soon begin reducing the prednisone dose. We are keeping our fingers crossed that no new complications arise between now and day 100.

Until next time, take care everyone. Much love.

Arnie & Brenda

PS In the wee hours of Wednesday morning (April 15th) persons unknown made off with the top of the space needle. Investigators initially thought it was a magic stunt by Doug Henning but later confirmed that aliens had been at the Sci-Fi museum and decided to take a quick spin around the solar system with the saucer. They returned the craft later that morning.

bqthiessen@sasktel.net