Monday, August 2, 2010 8:32 AM, CDT

It has been a year ago today that Mark entered into the realm of Multiple Myeloma. Not a wonderful thing to think about, but wonderful that it was detected early, treated and we have had another year. It has been a long and very hard year, but he is a strong trooper.

We returned to Little Rock yesterday for his first maintenance checkup. Maintenance chemo was not what we had thought it would be and has taken quite a lot to work out. Mark has really good days and some down days. Each day is planned around which side effect will show up. We are learning!

We are praying that the test results this week will confirm that the Myeloma is at bay. The point of the maintenance program is to keep it as low as possible. We are anxious to meet with Dr. N on Thursday afternoon to hear a great report!

Little Rock almost seems like home since we have spent most of the year here, but it isn’t! We miss our family and friends each time we have to come here. We met a lady, Margaret, at one of the chemo sessions who has been living with myeloma for 7 years - such an inspiration to both of us. We laugh and say she began in Little Rock back in the “Dark ages”. I have kept in touch with a few of the other patients and they all seems to be hanging tough. We got word yesterday that Tom is sick. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him, Debbie and his sweet family.

Yesterday was a challenging day! The drive was hard - we believe they moved Little Rock further west. The traffic was bumper to bumper and it you have ever driven between Memphis and anywhere westward you know that it is transfer truck central. The heat must have made everyone edgy - it topped out at 103 about 4PM. Our apartment was ready, but the rate had changed - Mark was not happy! We unloaded the truck and discovered that the apartment had not been cleaned - wasn’t happy! After much calling and discussion, the manager moved us upstairs to a clean apartment - Mark nor K were happy about the stairs and having to lug all our junk up them. But at least it was clean.

Our favorite, Copeland’s restaurant was calling our name, or that is what we thought anyway. Until we had been there an hour and they finally brought our dinner and it was the wrong item. So the sweet waitress took it away with a promise that our dinners would be right out. Another wait, another “it is coming”, we finally ended up walking out and going to Wal-Mart for crackers, pnut butter and ice cream…

We have so much to be thankful for and God continues to provide for and bless us. We have received news of illness in so many of our loved ones. May the good Lord bless Tom, Uncle CJ, Aunt Bet, Tommy, Faye and the many others that are needing his loving care.

Love from our home away from home,