Love from
Ian & Lorna

Hi everyone,

You may have noticed that we skipped the holiday card last year. We were kinda occupied with the surprisingly time-consuming task of keeping Ian on the planet. He spent mid-October through January in a hospital in the South Bay, about an hour and a half from home. We rented a small backyard apartment so I could be close by. When we finally returned home, it took us weeks to look at the wonderful holiday cards you had sent. We appreciated every one of them, even if they were opened well after Valentine’s Day.

Most of you know that Ian was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma a little over two years ago. First came the shock of diagnosis and then came the horror of treatment. I eventually wrote an essay about our experience (if you are on a mobile: click 3 dashes in top right corner for essay). It describes my shift from physician to caregiver, a transition I did not expect to make - ever. One of the many bright moments this season was having an edited version of the essay published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) in early December. We are still pinching ourselves about that.

As the essay describes, Ian was selected as one of thirty cancer patients to exhibit their work at SF MOMA(San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). This exhibit marks the first collaboration between a major medical center (UCSF) and a major museum to highlight a program called Art for Recovery. The show will run for six months. The opening celebration happened to fall on Day 100 after Ian’s bone marrow transplant, and it was the first public event we had attended in a couple of years.

This year held a milestone for me. I retired in August after twenty-seven years in the same job, and my first official day of retirement happened to be the morning after we returned from the transplant hospitalization. I told Ian, “It feels like the first day of the rest of our lives.” He was done with treatment. I was done with work. We happily said good riddance to both.

We will not be traveling far for a while since Ian’s immune system is still rebuilding and he continues to take many medications. Once those are tapered off, he will begin receiving all of his vaccines again, including childhood ones, since everything is wiped clean before transplant. In the meantime we imagine taking short road trips to cooler coastal places, as Ian cannot tolerate heat and needs to avoid the sun. Our summer trips to southern Utah are likely behind us, but we treasure the thirteen journeys we made there. We will also steer clear of parts of the country where vaccine-preventable diseases, like measles, are again on the rise.

Now the days and weeks seem to fly by. Ian insists I’m finally getting better at retirement, which I take as high praise. He’s back in the role of head chef, which restores order to the universe, and he’s happily spending hours 3D-modeling and taking online courses. I’ve been taking writing classes, something I’ve wanted to do since long before the internet existed. Some days the last two years feel like they happened to someone else, but each day brings us a little closer to whatever passes for normal now. We are grateful for all of you who helped carry us through this long chapter.

Wishing you peace, health, and happiness in the coming year.

Love from Lorna and Ian