Update

For the last two or three days, Jimmy has been more "Jimmy-ish" than he's been in ages: he's more interested in what's going on around him, he's feistier, and tiny rare glimpses of his old joie de vivre have been spotted from time to time. He just FEELS better. All of that chemotherapy he's been taking beats him up something awful, and as he says, the Quality of Life on chemo is not good.

Now for the downside of feeling good: Jimmy knows he's doing well because he's been off the chemo for several weeks, and without the chemo, the Pacmen ( Jimmy's little euphemism for the cancer) are at it again. His paraprotein counts are going up. So we can't really enjoy this brief respite of normalcy.

We're going to Atlanta December 27 to start doing tests (EKG, ECHO, labs, pulmonary function, etc., etc.) to make sure Jimmy is in good enough health to survive the transplant - which he is. Consents are scheduled for January 2, and injections are started on the 4th, and collection on the 8th. Depending on how all of this goes, the transplant will probably happen soon after...IF we get enough stem cells to do the transplant - and we will.