*update* new look

Hi guys,

Thought you'd enjoy a picutre of the new David. Newly out of isolation and now accepting visitors!

If you want to stop by please do. Still at VGH. Still on the 15th floor. Room 460. Phone 604-875-5400 ext 60645. Don't be shy, David's still David. Just a smaller, tireder version.

A few visitng requests:

- If you feel even a bit sick please don't visit. His immune system is still at zero.
- Don't be too shocked - David looks like Gandhi.
- Please keep visits short. 5-10 minutes is more than enough to exhaust the poor boy.
- And, if you can, try to keep the questions about what's next for David to a minimum. As you can imagine, repeating the same thing to friends, family and coworkers is exhausting.

To help with my last request and because I know everyone is curious and concerned, I'll share with you guys everything we know about 'the plan'. Apparently David's treatment is analygous to removing weeds from your front lawn (doctor's analogy, not mine). Anyway, pretend his bone marrow grows grass normally, and that the leukemia is weeds. The chemo is pesticide. So basically the chemo has done it's job and killed the weeds and the grass. Now we are waiting for the grass to grow back, hopefully without weeds. If David's bone marrow produces grass, no weeds, David's in remission.

If he gets to a stage of remission the docs will consider a bone marrow transplant, but that's not on the table yet. We did find out a few days ago that David's brother is not a match, so the doctors are currently searching for an unrelated donor. When I say this I usually get a bunch of questions about getting tested to see if you are a match - it's probably pretty unlikely - but if you are interested go onematch.ca for more info. The site has a lot of info on bone marrow donation, and no, you can't be tested specifically for David. If you decide to go through with it you have to be okay with the idea of some stranger walking around with a bit of your DNA, if you ever match someone.

Protected from everything on the way to the eye doctor.

So bottom line, right now we just have to wait and be patient. Keep sane in this crazy hospital and try to get some weight back on David.

In the meantime we appreciate all the support, positive thoughts, messages, emails, videos, picutres, phone calls that you've sent our way. We read and are enertained by everything, we just haven't been able to respond and thank you all yet!

Cindy