A New Arrival and Other News

Hey Y'all,

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted?  Time seems to have flown by with births, visits and the summer season in high gear.  I really have not had a chance to sit down and post a post which has let to some subtle and some not so subtle hints that I should make the time - so here is the latest......

The REALLY BIG NEWS is that my amazing, beautiful daughter in law Paige delivered a 7 pound 9 ounce bundle of joy named Grayson Lorelei Rielly on the 27th.  I was on pins and needles all of that day getting sporadic text messages from Sean and his Mom.  I was in my office at the Merc when the good news came via text and I ran down to tell Helen yelling "It's a boy!".  You see we were all sure that it was going to be a boy - I even had a dream that it was a boy - and I was so excited to receive the text that I totally misread it. Needless to say I had a red-faced return downstairs to set the record straight and how happy I was to do so because we are all over the moon to have this beautiful baby in our family.

Grayson Lorelei Rielly

OK, I'm a proud granddaddy but you've got to admit she is precious.  And so is her family............

The Rielly Clan of West Hartford, CT

By the way, in case you have not met him, the little guy with the curly blond hair is Tanner Joseph Rielly who will be two in October.

It is not an easy segue to go from birth to cancer but here goes.  I am really feeling just fine.  I do not have any symptoms of my disease that I can tell and sometimes I have to "pinch" myself just to make it seem real.  One thing that does bring it into focus is a trip down the mountain to Duke Cancer Center.  But before we get there I need to tell you about the trip Helen and I took to the Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

As you may know, the park is one of the most visited national parks but Cataloochee is probably the least visited part of the park.  To get there you have to navigate eleven miles of single lane, switch-backed dirt road with no guard rails and sheer drops that can make your head spin.  The valley has a winding river, a few old buildings, amazing pastures and the only Elk Herd left in North Carolina.  In the whole huge valley there are only 25 campsites so the miles and miles of trails, streams full of trout and pastoral views of mountains, pastures and elk are yours to enjoy without crowds.

Cataloochee Elk

After a few days camping, fishing, biking and hiking it was time to pack up and head home.  Helen volunteered to pack up the tent while I did a little fly fishing so I was able to avoid having a heart attack because I missed seeing the little fellow who was sleeping under us between the tent and the ground sheet.

Strange Bedfellow

You are not supposed to mess with the wildlife so we left the ring snake there to seek out a new home and headed down the road.  On the way home we stopped at the Asheville Airport to pick up Helen's sister Theresa who very generously offered to mind the Merc while we went down to Duke for my second treatment.  The good news is that Theresa arrived safely; the bad news is her bag never made it.  As a matter of fact, it is still missing as I write this although there is rumor circulating that the bag is making endless loops around carousel number two in Asheville.  Helen's sister Kathy also stopped by for a visit so we had three of the five Barnes sisters under one roof.  Here's a photo of them after more than a little bit of wine.

The Three Amigas - Kathy, Theresa and Helen

So this past Thursday Helen and I headed down the mountain to stay once again and our good friend Karen and Rick Wilson's beautiful Chapel Hill home.  After a restful night we were off to Durham and the Duke Cancer Center.  I have previously mentioned how beautiful this facility is - like a five star hotel.  Here is a look at the atrium.

  As you can see there is some amazing architecture as well as some amazing people.  Being old hands now we knew that the agenda was first floor for blood tests, third floor for a consult with the oncologist, and fourth floor for treatment or, as I like to call it - lab, gab and stab :-)  Here is what it looks like>>>>

Lab

Gab (with the wonderful Dr. Hanks - a really good guy and excellent  oncologist)

Stab (waiting for the bag that says DANGER  Hazardous  Drug)

The best part of our time at the Cancer Center is always meeting with Dr. Hanks.  He is a really good guy - professional, generous and always ready to listen and field any question.  I told him that I had a goal.  I said "Doctor, I live in a small town and that my goal was for everyone in that town to say - that Jack Rielly is such a bullshitter, he went around telling everyone he had cancer and he never got sick at all".  Dr. Hanks had a good laugh over that but also agreed that it was a good goal to have and that it was his goal too.  On a more serious note, I asked him about the missing primary (that is the spot on your skin that you don't want to find and one that has not been found on me).  He said that in a small percentage of melanoma cases the primary self resolves and that was because the patient's immune system had attacked it.  He also said that there was some statistical evidence that patients with a missing primary do better with immunological treatment.  That was good news to both Helen and I and we took that home with us as we climbed back up that mountain to Todd to await Sarah, Evan and the Grandgirls who were do to arrive that night but that is a story for the next blog.

One last thing.  I have been overwhelmed with good wishes, emails, facebook messages and so on and I really appreciate every single one.  If I have not had a chance to respond I hope that you will know that it is not because I don't appreciate your thoughts and input, it is just that I have not had the time and space to give it the attention it deserves.

J