Today was a beautiful day here in central Texas. Cindy and I went to Quitman, Tx. to Stitchin' Heaven quilt shop. I order BOMs from them so was nice to see the shop. I also bought a couple of patterns. Roy and Tommy met us at Hillsboro at Black Eyed Pea for dinner so I had a wonderful day.

Tomorrow Roy and I will be heading to Houston. Check-in time at the park is 1:00. It should only take us a couple of hours to get there so won't have to leave too early. His appointment is Tuesday, the 3rd, at 8:30 so we will start the procedure of what will be done for him, or if anything can be done other than just do blood work every month or so and watch and wait to see what happens.

Roy is still feeling good and I hope it continues until he gets to M.D. Anderson next week. I reread my last post and there was an error. His appointment is next Tuesday, Nov. 3 @ 8:30; we are leaving China Spring on the 1st. Roy hasn't been doing much since we've been here but we had some excitment Saturday evening. My SIL and I had been out for lunch and went to the grocery store and then just before supper (or dinner, depending on your locale) Tom came by and said he was taking Cindy to the ER as she was having arm pain and was nauseous. They ruled out a heart attack but her BP and blood sugar (she is a diabetic) were very high and her potassium was low. So they kept her overnight and yesterday, Monday, they did a heart cath and found 60-70% blockage in an artery so put in a stint. The nurse told Tom that the artery was called the "black widow" one. She should be coming home today. She and I had planned on taking a road trip to Quitman, Tx to a quilt shop but that will have to wait.

Yesterday, it rained, rained and rained some more. It started during the night, stopped for about an hour in the afternoon and then started again toward evening. This morning, the sun is shining and is beautiful. I haven't been out but I am sure it is cool but at least the sun is shining.

I plan on washing the sheets today as soon as Roy gets back out of bed. I did the other laundry in between showers yesterday.

Life is going good right now. Will keep everyone updated as life goes on. I'm doing some hand sewing, English Paper Piecing, for a quilt shop in Topeka and will send it to them when I am finished. Then I will have a shop sample to sew for a quilt store in Emporia; I'm just waiting on the fabric and pattern. See, I can keep busy no matter where I am.

We made it to China Spring yesterday afternoon and went by the RV park at Waco Lake. They were closing down the camp sites because of all the rain they had been having. The lower loop was already closed and they were closing down the rest of the camp because the lake was going to be rising 8' over the next 24 hours as they were having to let water out of other lakes so they wouldn't flood homes. They have had a lot of rain lately - the creeks were running full and the ponds were overflowing and water standing in the fields. So we came back to Tommy and Cindy's place and are parked in their driveway. We stayed in the RV instead of in their home - just nice to do what we want in the evening and get up and not bother others.

Tommy went to work this morning - early - and he disturbed the neighbor's dog. Roy's phone just rang and it was Tommy and Roy asked him if he was at work and Tommy said no, he was home. Roy said why didn't you just knock on the door instead of calling.

Roy found out he has an appointment at M.D. Anderson for Nov. 1 @ 8:30, so we are going there Sunday and that will give us a couple days to get situated. He has to be there at 7:30 so we need to find out how to get there. Even though it is only 2.5 miles from the park I still would feel better if we have an idea of how to get there. The nurse he talked to said they would be working with him for about 4-5 days - I would imagine this would be going over everything and having a physical and all. I guess we'll find out when we get there. Sounds encouraging that they will do the SCT.

We will be leaving for Houston tomorrow morning. Roy talked to the hospital (MD Anderson) yesterday and again today. The lady he talked to today said the doctor was looking at his records but was wondering if he had seen a doctor since August. Roy told them he saw them in September and had a bone marrow biopsy the 5th of this month. MDA didn't have them so Roy called KU Med and got a voice mail and told the nurse that she needed to send this to MDA. Hopefully they did. I have been telling Roy there is no need to wait until they call with an appointment, especially if they would need him there in a day or two. So this morning he said we just as well go on down, if I wanted to. So I got busy and finished putting things in the RV. I called the RV place and told them we wouldn't be there until Friday instead of Wednesday like I first told them. I've got a list of things I need to put in the RV in the morning and need to check my clothes to see if I have everything. Don't know whether to take hot or cool clothing so I guess I'll take both. I'll have to make sure that Roy has what he needs. Whenever he's been in the hospital at the KU Med he always wears gym shorts and I asked him this morning if he had those out yet to take and he said he would have to look for them. I know he hasn't worn them for about 10 months and if you could see his room you would wonder if he can find them. I did buy him some new sweat pants and have those in the camper already; also bought him some new socks. I figure he can do the rest.

I'll let you all know how things are going for us in a day or two.

I guess we aren't leaving for Houston today so I am doing laundry and quilting. At least I will have all the laundry done before we leave and not have to take too much with us. Roy seems to be feeling okay but just seems as if he can't get to making decisions real fast or easy. As I've said before, I hope Roy realizes how sick he is going to be if they do the tranplant. If he is not eligible for the transplant, I do hope they will give him some hope of what he can do to stay in remission. And I'm also going to ask them to give him something for depression. He doesn't think he needs anything but when you sit and do nothing or sleep I think he needs something.

Roy aired up the tires of the RV this morning so I don't know if that means we are leaving tomorrow or not. But I have my clothes, most of my sewing supplies and a few groceries loaded so I am about ready. I'm going to try and do laundry but will take our dirty clothes in a garbage bag and do it later. I finished binding a quilt and got one quilted and delivered today. If we are going to be here for a few more days I will put another one in the machine and get it done.

I am thinking there might be something wrong with Roy's blood count as he has a red rash on his face. He says it doesn't itch or anything but looks like it could. He has had this before when his counts start going down. I think we ought to go on down and wait for the hospital to call with an appointment but he wants to wait, but by going down we could enjoy the nice weather. I don't see any reason to wait but I can't talk him into doing that. Guess I'll do what he wants since this is his call anyway.

I called a couple of my clients this evening to ask if they needed the quilts I have here that I need to quilt before leaving for Texas. I have one - a small one - so will try and get it done tomorrow. I am working on the binding on a quilt and going to try and get it done before we leave. Hopefully I can talk Roy into leaving Sunday. I would like to go through Tulsa and see my brother and then on down to Houston.

I just hope that if M.D. Anderson does do the SCT, that Roy realizes he is going to be very sick. He was told this over a year ago at the KU Med Center, but sometimes I don't think he hears it all. If they won't do the SCT, hopefully they will give him a regemin(sp) to follow. Sure wish he had done this three years ago but he wouldn't. I asked him many times. I think it took the doctors at the Med Center leaving and the scare that he might be out of remission last month when his blood counts went so low. He hasn't had any blood checks for a week so hopefully they are going up.

When he was diagnosed, he just sort of went into a shell and I have had a terrible time getting him to do anything, even going to visit his grandkids. He always says, what if I get sick while I'm gone, I can't think that far ahead and more and more.

Hopefully we will hear from the Hospital tomorrow and will have something more concrete to plan with. I'm ready to go to Texas now and wait for the Hospital to call us there. I think we need to be there when they call with an appointment instead of driving like mad to get there when they call needing to see us in two days. I'll still work on him.

I am just new to "blogging" but I need an outlet. Three and a half years ago my husband was diagnosed with AML, Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, and our life changed, but I can't say whether it was for the better or worse. There have been so many ups and down in the past 3 1/2 years, chemo, in remission, monthly checkup, trip to Alaska, out of remission, back in remission and on and on. Right now he is in remission and we are going to be going to M.D. Anderson for him to consult with them on having a stem cell transplant (SCT). I have made reservations for us to stay at an RV park 2 1/2 miles from M.D. Anderson and we are to check-in Wednesday but I cannot get him to say when we are leaving. I guess I'll just get the RV packed and be ready to leave on a moments notice.

Right now he is feeling good - maybe not his mental attitude - but hopefully that will improve, but I doubt it. So I do a lot of making quilts and quilting on my longarm machine for others.