Nine Month Report 10/29/06

 
Just an update to let you know that Robin is still cancer-free nine months after completion of treatments. She received a full battery of tests - CT Scans, Bone Scans, and Blood tests for cancer markers. No sign of cancer!!! The next big milestone is the "one-year cancer-free" milestone, when Robin's probability of surviving five more years doubles.

I last wrote in July. Robin had completed surgery on her eye and had laser in both eyes to stop the growth of blood vessels. She had just started seeing well enough to play piano again (as long as Andrew increased the size of the music). Since then, she got a new prescription for glasses, but they have not really helped at all. She is still legally blind and should not be driving. Reading (which she loves) is now a chore. She can no longer scan-read, but must read word-by-word, taking much longer than before her vision problems began.

Robin saw her regular physician in August, who referred her to an Endocrinologist regarding her diabetes. She had to wait one month for the first appointment. This doctor has changed her medications, causing Robin to have severe low blood sugar levels from time to time. When these occur, she gets very ill and has to eat candy to recover. I accused her of doing it on purpose so she could eat the candy, but she assures me that the candy is not worth how bad she feels for hours after one of these episodes. Other than the blindness and the diabetes issues, she feels well, and seems to be okay except for more tiredness than before all this started.

The rest of the family is doing well. John broke his left arm two weeks ago while playing tackle football without pads. The fracture is right at the elbow, breaking off a part of the rotator face. After seeing several specialists, they have decided that he does not need surgery - it should heal in six weeks - completely in 3-4 months. Unfortunately, he has not been able to work (and he seems to be enjoying it). He dropped calculus (not sure why) and kick-boxing (because of his injury), so he's not going to school full-time.

I'm doing fairly well, too. I fell on my right arm just before John's accident. It is getting better, but I've noticed that I don't heal as fast as I used to.

I am still working (since February) at Boeing in Software Quality Assurance on the Shuttle Backup Flight Software Project and on the Shuttle DOLILU project (Day-of-Launch--I-Load Update). It is like Deja Vu. My first job with "Singer-Link" was the Shuttle simulator, and I worked in OBCSS (On Board Computer Support Software) loading and unloading the GPCs. Here I am again, 25 years later, looking at HAL/S and IBM Assembly code, working with gigantic "IBM" mainframe computers and JCL. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a time warp, zapped back to the 70's.

The DOLILU job is very interesting (and high pressure). On the day of launch, we (and two other groups - Huntsville and JSC/USA process weather balloon wind data to assess whether the trajectory program requires an update (I-Load), or does not, or whether we should scrub the launch, altogether. Towards the last couple of hours, it is too late to update, so the question is "Go or NoGo?" and the balloon data is coming in fast towards the end. As QA guy, I'm not processing balloon data, but I am busy making sure they are working with good data files, following procedures, and handling the anomalies properly (and with weather balloons, there are always anomalies). Between flights, we have simulations to keep skills up and to test new software, rules, and procedures.

Please continue to pray for us. We continue to pray for each of you, and to pray for all those afflicted with cancer.

Love from us all,
Larry, Robin, and John