Dear Cat loving friends,

I know that lots of people need purrs these days, and on an ongoing basis,
but I need to ask everyone to spare a few purrs, prayers and good thoughts
for my brave friend Kim.

As a quick recap, Last spring at about this time, Kim was diagnosed with a
recurrence of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She underwent the normal radiation and
chemotherapy treatments until last November, when the cancer stopped
responding to the chemotherapy. Over Christmas, she underwent a stem-cell
transplant at the Mayo Clinic  which was at least initially successful.
Since then, she has slowly been regaining her health, weight and strength,
but not as much as anyone would like.  Just in the past week, she
experienced shortness of breath, which was one of the symptoms that lead to
her original diagnosis last year.  As of yesterday, the Hodgkins is back, in
the right lung this time, and on her liver. The liver tumors are new, as
she's never had trouble with that before, and to have the Hodgkins back
barely four months after a transplant is a very serious development.  So Kim
is back to where she was last spring, and is even worse off, if possible.
The stem-cell transplant, although it bought her some time, means that her
bone marrow is like a two year old's and she cannot withstand the
chemotherapy dose that an otherwise healthy adult could tolerate. So she has
very limited treatment options while facing an apparently aggressive, not to
say vicious variety of Hodgkins. Kim insists she will fight for her life,
but at the same time, will try to pack as much as she can in if the Hodgkins
wins the battle. She wants to have no regrets, and leave no important things
unsaid. It's a terrible blow to her parents too, as they already lost Kim's
older sister to cancer about ten years ago.

A week ago, Kim had been joyfully planning a summer vacation on the east
coast, as she spent most of last summer in the hospital.  But now, she has
more pain and illness to look forward to instead.  She IS looking forward to
one thing, which is her wedding to her fiance, who has already stuck by her
in the sickness and health aspects.  They're planning an August wedding,
which will not actually be legal, but it will be a wedding in all the other
important aspects. (Her fiance is Canadian, and squaring up all the legal
documentation and red tape would take more time than they can spare.) It
will be a ceremony of their commitment to one another, and screw the gummint
for the moment.

So whatever prayers and good thoughts you can spare on her behalf, please
send them towards Bottineau North Dakota.
Thanks,
Melissa