Update From the Parents (Nov. 20)

Nancy and Vic St.Pierre wrote (NOV 20, 2008):
Hi to all
Wow have we had our excitement this week. I am happy to be celebrating another birthday!! The alternatives don't look like much fun. I am twice as old as Heather and Hillary. If I look at it this way it makes me feel younger. They both hope they are as good looking when they get to this age!! Ha ha
Well I have got a good story now that it's over. Yesterday Hillary had to make an unexpected trip to Dartmouth. She said it was just for a buff and a shine. Well, it was Allissa to the rescue to watch Xander. Xander has strep throat and ear infections and has been home. Alissa, son,Logan and Xander are good buddies. They have lots of energy. They were outside playing and all of a sudden they could not be found!
Panic!! She looked for a while but then started to call people to help. It's hunting season and we have a lot of deer around. Well by the time I heard about it there was about 10 people looking, plus the town police and the state police dogs were on the way!! Well Jen, One of Xanders other sitters checked again at some of the other neighbors. She found them on the neighbors trampoline. They had actually gone into one of the neighbors houses because they had cool toys!!. The neighbors were not home. It's common in North Charlestown to leave your door unlocked. So they were just playing out of site. Our Police chief had a heart to heart talk with the boys. He was great. I don't think they will dare walk off again without asking. After he left I noticed Allissa's hair turning Gray right in front of my eyes. I think she aged 10 years in 10 minutes. Now for the rest of the story....
Alissa tried to call Jon's cell phone and got Hillary who was at Dartmouth. She had been very medicated. Hillary's comment to Allissa was " that happens sometime, they will be back." That’s how good the drugs are. She wasn't very reassuring to Alissa.
Well as always I try to start off with the good news. That horror show was actually the good news. Hillary is now at Dana Farber. She has pneumonia. She is getting antibiotics by IV. Her lungs have been shedding old cells. The last 2 weeks she has been sugar coating her Blog. On Monday Dana Farber did a cat scan. Hillary had another node on the neck. Thank God it was just scaring tissue from one of the many biopsy's. She did not mention that in her blog. Also on Monday she talked with Dr A. He told her that the symptoms she had now- Vomiting, diarrhea flu like symptoms, bone aching pain are very common. These symptoms could stay with her for a year or more. I think that really hurt her emotionally as she thought this would go away quicker. I think it took a little fight out of her. Right now she is very sick with a virus. She doesn't have much of an immune system. She has lost a lot of weight. She gets extremely tired. She is not the same Hillary we have seen before. All we can do is hope she can fight through this. In the immortal words of A wise coach I know, (He must be related to Yogi Berra) beating them is 80% mental , 40% physical and 20% luck. I would add some more percentage for prayer, support , medicine and training but we already are more than 100%.
Hillary is still doing her blog. She has now made business cards with her blog address to share with people with Cancer. She thought she would give them to a few people she talked with at the hospitals, Secretaries, nurses, a few patience etc. She was talking to an admitting secretary about how she was putting all of her bone marrow transplant information on her blog so that everyone could know what to expect. She had complete strangers listening from the waiting room ask her for her card. She gave away all her cards in 3 days At Dana Farber and Dartmouth. She has been approached by Google to do some work for them. She has a lot of people following her.
I think we are in for a tough time for a while. I know I have asked before but please keep her in your prayers. Actually I think we could all use some right now. Please check out Hillary's blog www.baldieblog.blogspot.com
Thank you all for caring. We could not have gotten this far without you all. Thanks Special thanks to our mystery bone marrow donor, where ever you are from.
Vic, Nancy, Patrick, Gracie, Allen, Pierce Heather, Xander, Jon, Hillary