When I first set up this blog site, I had the very best of intentions to document the many places I planned to travel.  With the exception of my incredible 2013 trip to Cambodia and Laos with Delaney and Kendall, the site has been an epic fail.  I have taken several wonderful trips that now exist in photos and in my memory, but appear nowhere in blog form (where they would exist in a more accurate and complete manner than in my failing memory).  That being said, I have never closed the account, and maybe there was a reason for that.

I am approaching an untraveled road.  In 2006, I learned that I have a rare disease called dense deposit disease.  This disease is an autoimmune disease that attacks the kidneys.  I have monitored the disease now for 12 years, but recently it took a decidedly nasty turn.  The fine nephrologists at the Mayo Clinic have recommended a trial study for me to see if the monoclonal protein that I also have may be the cause of the dense deposit disease.

I have decided to move forward with the trial.  It involves six months of infusions–one a week for eight weeks, then one every other week for four months.  All infusions must be done in Rochester, MN, at the Mayo Clinic.  The entire trial lasts for 12 months.  So David and I have moved to Rochester for the next six weeks or so to see how I react to the infusions.  If all goes well, I will fly in and out for the remaining infusions.  We have brought Olive, my mini aussie, with us to Rochester.  She is a trooper.

Olive in her car seat on the very long drive from Austin to Rochester