Dear Family & Friends,

Barry had a successful transplant on Friday – kind of a non-event – looked like a Bloody Mary being infused into his catheter. Unfortunately, he had contracted a bad, and extremely painful, case of shingles earlier in the week, and we have been spending 10 – 12 hours a day at the Cancer Center. It is an “expected” infection with his suppressed immune system. He’s also on a ton of medications, which coupled with the shingles and the meds he’s taking for that (including narcotics), make for a very miserable Barry. We have been reassured that he will completely recover from the shingles, and that many of the side effects he is now experiencing will lessen when the infection is gone. It’s just too bad that it all happened at once.

Please check out Barry’s Web site, www.agauchepress.com for his journal of his journey. I am sure he will post more when he is over this hump.

For those of you in the Bay Area, we are not allowed to have visitors, except for family and a few friends who live close by and have been extremely helpful spelling me so that I can go grocery shopping, etc. We are loving the apartment we have rented. It has a lot of light, plenty of room, but not too much room, and it is only five minutes from Stanford.

We have received all of your messages of support, via email, voicemail, and snail mail, and they are muchly appreciated. Please forgive us if we can’t respond individually, but it means the world. Also, please don’t worry if you don’t hear from me. It’s a whole new world.

Much love to all,

Bonnie