Good morning! Just wanted to let you know that we have changed to a different website. For whatever reason, some people were having difficutly accessing this site and we were not receiving any of the messages you left. The information regarding the new website is as follows:

1. www.caringbridge.org/visit/billfromhold

or,

2. www.caringbridge.org , then enter the name "billfromhold" on the home page

Hope this isn't an inconvenience. We've heard from other cancer patients that this site works well.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Bill and Marcia

As each day passes we get more information about Bill's cancer. Today the Mayo Clinic diagnosis was confirmed. The cancer is a very nasty and aggressive clone of cells.

Bill had a rough go of it last evening as the course of steroids he has been on ended. The original symptoms, most notably very swollen and painful lymph nodes, have returned. We saw the oncologist in Olympia today and in consultation with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) doc we saw yesterday they agreed to put him back on steroids for a few days so he would remain reasonably healthy going into the chemotherapy. We'll be doing appointments with docs each day early next week. Then we will go back up to SCCA for one more consult on Wednesday, see the oncologist in Olympia early on Thursday morning, and then Bill will be admitted to the hospital (St. Peter in Olympia) on Thursday for a two to three week period during which he will receive the chemotherapy and begin to recover from it. In the meantime they will begin working on identifying a donor for the stem cell transplant that will occur sometime (we're not sure yet how long) after the chemo. A number of people have asked and we are not yet certain about the process for identifying donors but know that there is a national registry. We will learn more about that on Wednesday

We remain positive and know you will send good thoughts Bill's way.

Well, today was the day. We received some good news and some not so good news.

The good news: Marcia will not need to have chemo. Taking medication for the next five years will provide results very close to those yielded from a course of chemo. Obviously, taking the medication is our choice. There are a few side effects but it sounds like there is nothing we can't deal with.

The not so good news: Dr. Linenberger, at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, saw Bill today. He affirmed the preliminary diagnosis from the Mayo Clinic; dendritic cell malignancy. This is a very rare cancer with just a few cases to refer to for guidance. Dr. Linenberger and his colleagues have not seen a case previously. He did an additional bone marrow biopsy in each hip today. The purpose was to reaffirm the diagnosis and to gain more tissue to further refine the diagnosis for the purpose of identifying the appropriate drug(s) for chemotherapy. We will see him again on Monday or Tuesday to get those results.

In any case, the first step in treatment is likely to be immediate and aggressive chemotherapy. The treatment would require Bill to be in the hospital for 2-3 weeks; 1 week with the chemo. and several more to recover sufficiently to come home. The goal is to minimize the number of cancer cells but it is unlikely to be a cure. This would also allow time for a stem cell donor to be identified with a stem cell transplant being the best shot at a "cure".

Obviously, this wasn't what we'd hoped for but we are strong, have each other, have loving and supportive families and we'll deal with whatever comes. The other thing we know that will help us to meet this challenge is you, our caring friends whose support means everything to us.