Our first cancer treatment here in Valdosta went quite well, and was an easy pleasant experience. Even the parking was vastly different. In Atlanta, I either have to drop Jimmy off at the clinic, and then drive to Outer Mongolia to find a parking place, or use valet parking, which is time-consuming and expensive. Here, we just parked at the front door and went in. Whereas at Emory, dozens and dozens of people are being treated at the same time, at Pearlman, there were just a handful getting infusions, so it went rather quickly. Life is a lot simpler away from the big city.

While Jimmy was being treated, I walked to the hospital next door and sat with Mrs. Dewar for a while. She's feeling better, and probably will go home Friday. She was disappointed that Jimmy was not with me, but I explained that it was too much walking for his back, and I think that satisfied her. I didn't tell her that he was a hundred yards away, hooked up to an IV. His white blood count is still low, as is his ability to fight infection, and there are just too many sick people in the hospital.

Jimmy is doing SO much better. I think that a lot of it is that he is so happy to be at home. This morning Jamey came and got him and took him to the office for a little while, and then they came back to the house and had lunch together. Jimmy feels his best earlier in the day; as the day wears on, he runs out of steam. As I write this, I'm being paged. He needs for me to flush the lines on his port with heparin (prevents blood clots) before he goes to bed. There are no timeouts in this ballgame.