7/13: Getting Ready for Houston

Leo's symptoms aren't getting any better, but Houston is 2 days closer! I spoke with Dr. Szymkowski down there, who agreed it'd be a good idea to come Monday instead of Tuesday, so the Southwest Airlines tickets have been purchased for a flight Sunday afternoon, Extended Stay America room reserved, and Thrifty car rented at a very nice discount. Thanks so much to my old friend Joe and his wife Connie for helping me get in touch with Yvonne, who helps people coming to Houston for medical treatment. Going to spend most of the time starting tomorrow with preparations and packing. Leo's MRI was moved to Saturday early morning, thanks to Granpa Leonid, instead of Friday afternoon. This is a good thing because Leo has to be sedated, which means he can't eat for 8 hours and drink for 4 hours beforehand!

The banking contacts are tireless (that's why they make the big bucks)! Venture capitalists are providing all sorts of leads, as are old and new friends at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and UBS. Unfortunately I found out about a 4 year-old girl in Oregon that was diagnosed almost a year ago with the same pontine glioma as Leo. So, so sad. Her name is Katya; visit her link to read her story. Hopefully her uncle, Arkady, and I will be able to swap research...although I'm sure he'd covered all of my bases a long time ago.

3 long days to go...