DAILY NANCY UPDATE #16

Greetings. 

This is the sixteenth in a series of DAILY NANCY UPDATES I will be posting until the amazing Nancy Neufeld Callaway is in full remission and we have kicked her leukemia on its ass. 

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BREAKING NEWS

Another extremely positive report today from Nancy's lead oncologist Dr. Gary Schiller. He is blown away by her progress and said once again he believes she should probably be released from the hospital this weekend. Her chemotherapy will have continue on a weekly, outpatient basis for at least a year-- but at least she won't be stuck in her "cozy little cell" at UCLA any more. He also thinks she should attend Cosmo's bar mitzvah on January 28th. But we're just trying to take it all one day at a time. 

HEADLINES

GOOD VIBES

For reasons we're not going to question, over the past 24 hours, we've been hit from three completely different sources with the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh-- a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. One of Nancy's childhood friends, one of my childhood friends, and the hospital chaplain herself-- each independently shared different examples of Hanh's heartfelt philosophy-- and this one really stuck with me:

"Many people are alive, but don't touch the miracle of being alive."

Call me crazy, but that just seems like the perfect way to view the journey of Nancy's illness-- as a painful but powerful reminder of just how precious our time on this planet-- alone and together-- really and truly is.

TODAY'S HURDLE

Nancy's had some minor clotting in her right arm where the PICC line was inserted. Because of its proximity to her heart-- that's something that has to be carefully monitored. And she's currently being treated with a blood thinner to break up the clot. Your good thoughts and prayers toward a swift resolution of the problem are deeply appreciated.

POSTSCRIPT

We're changing our mantra. Because I began repeating the phrase "We Will Not Be Defeated" to my Chicago crew this season during the production of APB (any showrunner will tell you that producing a TV series often feels like some bizarre Hollywood form of combat)-- it seemed like the natural sentiment for fighting Nancy's leukemia, as well. In fact, she and I and the kids have been repeating it to each other over and over since New Year's Day. But today on her walk around the ward, Nancy began to feel like even saying the word "defeated" somehow struck a wrong chord-- and wondered if we couldn't come up with something more overtly positive. 

So even though we reserve the right to repeatedly change our minds (especially since our daughter Clemmy has been stumping hard for the entire family to get matching tattoos of the slogan as soon as Nancy's finally in remission!) - here's what we've landed on for now.  WE LOVE NANCY AND...

ALL IS WELL.