Monday, May 3, 2010

It's been a festive week here, with family coming in from out of town to celebrate Dad's 60th birthday. Anna arrived on Wednesday evening, in time for his actual birthday on Thursday.

Dad unfortunately spent much of his birthday on an unplanned trip to Moffitt, where the family had questions about the fatigue that has been dogging him in the past few weeks. Happily, the doctors were very reassuring, finding no neurological problems or other issues to worry about. They did a few blood tests and seemed confident that either the fatigue would fade as he completes inhibitor treatment near mid-June, or else it was due to something easily treatable like a hormone imbalance.

Thursday also marked Dad's final day of his current round of medication, which he is happy to put behind him!

Late Thursday night, Lauren and I came into town as well. On Friday, we properly celebrated his birthday along with Lauren's and Aunt Dee's. We even made Dad's favorite boyhood cake, a "1-2-3-4 cake" with vanilla frosting.

Here's a picture of the festivities. Apparently no one else got the message that this was the "zany" picture:

On Saturday, Lauren and I went to Men's Wearhouse to select groom and groomsman outfits for our wedding this summer! The suit passed muster with Dad, who has quite a critical eye for menswear.

Sunday saw a bit of an increase in Dad's energy level. He spent a lot of the day chatting with Lauren and me, also reading three full newspapers(!).

Since the last blog post, we have been so grateful for the delicious food brought by many friends and neighbors: Debbie Edwards, Mary Lib Howell, Dana Ludwig and Irene Guy, Harriet Plyler, and Karen McKinney. It's very touching to see this great outpouring of support from so many corners. I've also got to ask Dad just how he came to know so many amazing chefs! This is WAY better than what we're used to out in California.