Family! And a Trip to the ER.

We had a GREAT week with family. They really raised our spirits.
Elliot, Connie and Lauren came from Durham, and Erica came from New York. Jerry and Marie came from Bethesda.

In back: Lee's brother Elliot, sister-in-law Connie, Graham
In front: Lee's sister Lauren, and Elliot's daughter Erica

Since Erica has just started her cool new sports marketing job in New York, she could only stay for a day. What a sweetie she was to come all this way for just a day to give Graham a hug.

She delighted us with her lively stories about her new job,
living in New York with her "minimalist" boyfriend,
and her adoration for her I-Phone. :-)
Apple should definitely hire her as a spokesperson.
Erica is such a ray of sunshine, so like her amazing father.

Erica and Micki

Mom was hoping to come too, but she had to cancel at the last minute due to getting a nasty bug and not wanting to pass it on to Graham. Mom, we missed you!

On Sunday, unfortunately, Graham got increasingly feverish and lethargic, and was having bad pain in his back and chest, so we went to the ER, where we waited about 3 hours just to get seen by a doctor in training. We were getting pretty hungry, so Elliot and Erica came to our rescue with Haagen Daz ice cream. Man is that stuff good! It perked Graham right up.

After another 2 hours of waiting for test results, the doctors determined that Graham was anemic and needed two units of blood. Since it was almost midnight, we decided to get the transfusion the next morning.

Monday morning, Graham's Uncle Jerry and Aunt Marie arrived. We took all our guests to the Stanford Cancer Center, and we kept Graham company for the 7 hours it took to get the transfusion. Graham's brother Gary, who lives in Berkeley, joined us when he got off of work. Graham went from being a paleface to quite rosy-cheeked.

It was so comforting being surrounded by so many loved ones!

At Stanford Cancer Center

Tuesday, Graham felt energetic and good. I was hoping that his intense lethargy these past few weeks was perhaps just due to the anemia and not the cancer, but by Wednesday, he was already back to feeling soooo very tired and sleeping 12 hours and then needing a nap later in the day.

Wednesday, Jerry and Marie joined us for our appointment with Dr. Advani. They agreed with us that we are in skilled and caring hands.

Graham's uncle Jerry, aunt Marie and brother Gary

The scary new development is that Graham seems to be having neurological symptoms. His eyes are sometimes focusing independently of each other. Dr. Advani said that he could be admitted for emergency chemo if it gets worse or if his chin starts to feel numb. Otherwise, she wants him to wait until Monday for the next round of chemo so he can gain strength and have his throat heal some more.

Marie and Gary spent the afternoon making Graham one of his favorites - stuffed cabbage. We have enough to last quite a while! Yummy. Wonderful comfort food.