Backtracking...

Okay, let's see... W & B had a baby boy on Valentine's Day!!! He's beautiful, growing, so lucky to have such patient, mellow parents. B was amazing during the labor & birth. The baby has very light brown hair, a surprise since his mom and dad both have (well, W had) dark hair. He does not have a name yet. No big hurry. Congratulations!!!!
I will not be taking the chemo drug Cytoxan, at least anytime in the near future. When I saw my doctor team on the 16th, they decided another immunosuppressant, Cellcept, would be best. I think the idea is to wipe out any & all autoimmune inflammation in my body, then see if that brings down the pulmonary hypertension.
For a while I've suspected that Lupus might not be quite the correct diagnosis for me. It is almost the only explanation for my pericardial effusions and a few other things, but with certain ANA (antibody) tests, my results show patterns most common in scleroderma patients. Add to that my autoimmune dry-eye thing, most often seen in Sjogren's syndrome... The rheumatologist thinks I have 'autoimmune overlap'. It doesn't change my treatment, it just makes it harder for me to explain all this crap to other people! I'm still just going to call it lupus.
The worst part of it is that PH associated with scleroderma has the worst prognosis of any PH. This hill is just getting steeper.
After W went back to Nome we had a pretty boring week. We did go to the Bering Straits Native Corporation reception for shareholders. Dad was back in town for that since he's a board member, and his wife is a vice president so she was at the meeting too. I tried saying hi and bringing the kids to talk with her but as usual that didn't work out. She's pretty good at ignoring people. Whatever. The rest of the meeting was great, seeing so many people from home, watching the King Island Dancers, and hearing about the BSNC financial operations. R did a little eskimo dancing too during the invitational dance. On Friday, the kids and I had lunch with my two sisters and my dad. Good to see AuntieJ!
Last week, a high school classmate of mine died. He was only 36. He had always been a heavy drinker and his liver was in pretty bad shape but the last I'd heard of him, he was doing better. Peace to you always Truman.
LittleK got to accompany Gramma & Grampy to a fiddle dance last night. She of course insisted upon dressing in her own unique way (purple T-shirt, red velvet jumper dress, white tights, black ankle boots...) which we tried to modify and failed miserably. What a scowl she has. Somehow she ended up going dressed as she pleased, with a HappyMeal promise fulfilled (it was supposed to be a ChangeYourClothes bribe), a new friend and ten seconds of fame singing 'You Are My Sunshine' on stage. So when she makes her first million as a ballbreaking lawyer I expect a little credit.