More Than We Could Ask For

Today I was expecting to hear from UCSF about the next phase of Kevin's treatment which was to put him into remission with 'super chemo' and then start the stem cell process.  I waited patiently all day and near the end of it I received the call.  The news was not what we expected to hear.  All the results of last weeks day of lab work,  medical tests and the bone marrow biopsy done on Thursday are in! Guess what?  He's already in 'complete remission'!  All his results are 'phenomenal'!  Kidneys included! 

So, he doesn't need the two rounds of super chemo which was probably going to take another two months to do.  He's ready now to begin the stem cell process.  This Thursday we will be meeting in San Francisco with Dr. Wolf in his clinic to learn what exactly will happen next.  Kevin is scheduled to be back at UCSF as an out patient on the 25th for 1-5 days to harvest his stem cells and have them frozen.  Then he is scheduled to be admitted to the hospital at UCSF on February 8th to have the super chemo that kills everything good and bad to prepare him to receive his stem cells back.  They call it a transplant.  Hillary calls it a replant, since they are his own stem cells.  That's all we know now.  Things change so fast, but everything is going our way!

We give thanks to our Heavenly Father for His tender mercies and great love.  We give thanks to all of you for your tremendous prayers and love.  We have been so greatly blessed, we can't even begin to express adequate gratitude for all that we have been blessed with.  We have been blessed with great peace and the assurance that Heavenly Father is aware of us and all our concerns.  He has addressed each and every worry.  He blessed us with Michael Blackwell who made the diagnosis in record time, saving Kevin's life the first time.  He blessed us with our wonderful Dr. William Bonis here in Paso Robles.  Dr. Bonis got us to UCSF where they saved his life not once but two times and placed us in the capable hands of Myeloma experts, Dr. Wolf and Dr. Martin who took care of Kevin during his five week stay in there.  He blessed us with Kandee who has kept us at the Marriott during all our stays in SF.  He has kept a roof over our head and paid the bills through our friends, family, and even total strangers. We owe so many people.  All we can say is that we love you so much and we are truly grateful.

By the way, we were reminded that today is the fourth anniversary of the death of Kevin's father Lynn Richards.  Since his death we have been aware of his presence in the Richards' family's life still.  Every time Kevin is 'mostly dead' or comes out of one of his hallucinating periods, I always ask him, 'Have you seen your father lately?', hoping he would say he had just seen him and he gave him this or that advice.  That hasn't happened.  We choose to think of this coincidence as a sign that Grandpa has been near us and watching over us and celebrates with us today!

Our love to you all, Dale