Thank you to everyone who helped Heather and Dave this week!

Hello Everyone,

This is Michele, Heather's sister. I spoke with Heather yesterday and she asked me to post an update. Don't worry, she is well enough to update herself, but no longer has access to a computer.

Heather is back at Johns Hopkins. Early this week she became ill and was unable to participate in rehab. Initially the physician at the rehab hospital thought she had a sinus infection. On Friday she went to the ER of Washington hospital and it turns out that instead she has pneumonia. After this diagnosis she was transferred to Johns Hopkins where the physicians confirmed this diagnosis.

For those of you who may be confused, as I was, my understanding is that the drug Heather was taking to try and stop the continuation of her paralysis to her upper body, Avastin, is essentially a form of chemotherapy. Given this, after Heather takes Avastin, her immune system weakens and leaves her open to contracting things like pneumonia. Given the state of her immune system, she has been transferred to the hyper-sterile ward in Hopkins that she called home during her stem cell transplant. Her physicians at Johns Hopkins are meeting to determine what the next steps are. According to my mother, they are hoping to treat her for the pneumonia this week and PERHAPS transfer her back to the rehab hospital later this week.

As you can imagine, this has been yet another dip on the roller-coaster that is Heather's life. As per usual, however, Heather and Dave continue to exhibit enormous amounts of emotional and psychological strength. In fact, the main reason Heather asked me to update this blog was because during all of this Heather and Dave have been thinking most about all of the people that have lent a helping hand this week. Of course my Mom and Dan and Louise Zeitlin have been helping Heather and Dave virtually around the clock with the house and the kids. Paul and Nikki Zeitlin also coordinated a brigade of volunteers to help recruit volunteer help to pack of Heather's house this week. We are all family, so of course our support is always there and unconditional.

Beyond this, what has REALLY touched Heather is the amount of help from her friends and the families of those friends who have stopped by the house this week in response to Paul and Nikki's request for help. Heather asked me to express her deepest gratitude to all of you who have helped over the last week to pack up boxes at Heather's house and who are marshaling resources to ease their transition to their new, wheel-chair friendly home. As a result of your help, Heather and Dave's house will go on the market this week. This absolutely would not have happened without you (she said there were too many to name!). So, on behalf of our entire family, thank you and God bless you.

I am on my way down to Maryland to help out for the month of October and will continue to provide updates when Heather can not.

Michele