Tomorrow is Day 0. That is the day of the stem cell transplant and the beginning of the end. Hopefully, it is the lowest point in the entire process. I was thinking of writing about what the facilities look like when you have to move away from home but I think that is best for another day. Today is going to be more somber and vigilant.

In the family housing building, there is a tree with a bunch of blank tabs representing the leaves of the tree. The building shares facilities with the Ronald McDonald house. If you have been fortunate to not know much about Ronald McDonald, this is a place to stay when children are sick. I assume that the tree is for anyone to add a leaf to, but it looked to me that these were wished primarily to kids.

I took a random photo of a book that contained former hanging leaves. Talk about perspective… I don’t care what is going on in the world, some people have much bigger problems. While I consider what I do important and somewhat cathartic, there is nothing that compares innocence stolen by disease.

This tree is kind of my version of the Vietnam wall. While some of the leaves made it, some did not. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Whatever happens in my journey from this point on, we have had 26 years married, fought and loved, raised children to adults and made the world better together. While I hope for the best, I go into the process knowing that there are risks.

End Your Programming Routine: I want to keep it short and simple today. There are greater powers at work here. Because this was just a random picture, there were some leaves that were just heart breaking on that tree. It can almost always be worse. I am thankful that there is still a good chance to move beyond this.