6/13/2000 7:58 AM EST

For those that have already heard and to those that are just finding out - Jim has been diagnosed with leukemia. They are pretty sure that it is acute myelogenous leukemia but we have not had that totally confirmed yet. Sunday night Jim got even sicker and I took him back to the hematologist here in Athens. They admitted him into the hospital and that is the reason that I was unable to call those of you back that had called. It was so late when I finally got home.

This morning the doctors said that they were going to continue giving Jim antibiotics and fluids and try giving him some blood today to see if they could stabilize him enough to start the chemotherpy - hopefully tomorrow. The chemotherpy will be given for seven straight days continuously and then they will wait for his white and red blood cells count to get back to normal.

They told us yesterday that the average first time stay is about one month. Hopefully he will be able to come home for several weeks and then go back for another round of chemotherpy for five straight days continuously. During this wait time we will decide where to go for a complete bone marrow transplant. Both of Jim's brothers have agreed to be donors so the doctors think that we should be alright with that. We won't know until they are tested.

All this information has been given to us and that will be the route that we go once the typing of Jim's leukemia has been confirmed. That still could be a day or so.

Thank you to everyone for all their thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for us. It will be a long hard road for us over the next several months but I feel very confident that Jim can beat this and be better sometime down the road. I will try to send updated emails to you on his prognosis and if anyone wants to be included on these updates tell them to email me at wandafain@aol.com.

Jim is at Athens Regional Hospital in Athens on the Oncology floor in room 5140.

Thanks to everyone and our love to you all. Wanda

6/1/2000 9:31 PM EST

Thank you everyone for all the thoughts and prayers sent our way. We love you all and really appreciate all the offers of help.

Jim had to have 3 units of blood today and they have called in the infectious disease specialist to try and stop the sinus infection because they plan to start the first day of chemotherapy tomorrow. They did all the test needed to check out his heart today and they are going to put the catheter in his (chest, shoulder or neck) in the morning.

The doctors diagnosised Jim with AML today - now we are waiting on other test results to class this type of leukemia and some type of genetics test also. I still do not know nor do I understand most of what they say. The doctors said tonight that he is has a very fast aggressive kind and that chemo had to be started even while we wait for other test results.

They moved Jim to a new room - a long term stay room - it is bigger and designed for long term stays. The room is #5147. For those of you that missed the first email- he is at Athens Regional Medical Center in Athens, GA. The phone number there is (Email me for the number) - at the prompt key in 5147 and it will ring in his room. Phone calls into the rooms stop around 9:00 pm.

Continue to pray for us and thanks again. All our love Wanda

6/13/2000 10:52 PM EST

I have gotten so many emails that wanted the address of the hospital that I decided to just send it to everyone.

He was moved today into a larger long term stay room and the room # is 5147. The telephone number is (Email me for the number). At the prompt key in the room number. I know that Jim will appreciate the calls and correspondences. He is expected to be there approximately 4 weeks. I will let you know by email when he is to sick to receive your calls but he likes getting them right now.

6/14/2000 3:24 PM EST

I have been asked about visitation and I checked with Jim's doctor - since they had to postpone starting the chemo until tomorrow because of the sinus infection is not under control as much as the infectious disease specialist would like for it to be. They may go in later today and try draining his sinuses to see if that will help. He did a cat scan of his head and they were going to decide want to do next based on the results of the cat scan.

The doctor said that he would encourage all visitation but to do so by this weekend. Unless Jim has a hard time while taking the chemo he will not be at much risk. The doctor said that if you are well and want to see him that he would advise all visitation but to limit it through Sunday. After the chemo treatment he will not be able to have visitors until his blood counts are back to normal. They estimate the length of time for this to be two or three weeks. So for the ones that would like to see Jim, I would like for you to plan on a visit by Sunday night. I will let you know if he is not doing well with the chemo after it is started but the doctors do not think that the type that he is going to get will cause him much trouble. They said that this type usually causes more problems after the treatments are finished. I'll keep you informed if this is to change.

They also said to tell everyone - Please do not send any live flowers that would need to be in water. They say that silk and artifical plants and balloons but not live flowers. He has a big board and they say cards are wonderful. I sent the address on a previous email - if you did not get it and need it just send me an email.

6/16/2000 12:54 AM EST

It is very late and I have been at the hospital since 8:00 this morning so if this update doesn't make sense or if there are alot of typo errors please excuse them.

Jim called this morning and said that the doctors were going to take him to surgery at 8:30 to put the catheter in his chest. I got ready and just missed him - they had already taken him to the operating room holding area. He was not on the schedule so they were going to work him in. The procedure was not suppose to take but about 15 to 20 minutes. I waited in his room until about 10:00 or so and decided that I would ask the nurse about how long he would be. She sent me down to the operating room area to check. I went there and they said that he was in the operating room and should be back in the room by 11:00. I went back to the room and at 11:30, I was pretty nervous so I went to check again. After finding out that he was coming up to his room I went to wait again. I finally got to see him about 12:00.

The surgery went well but, he appeared to be in alot of pain. He said that his shoulder and arm was hurting - we assume because his arm was stretched out awkwardly for so long. We spent the rest of the afternoon with him taking pain medicine but not to any real relief.

His doctor was suppose to start the chemotherepy at around 1:00. Jim was really nervous about it anyway and every hour of delay seemed to make him more nervous. His doctor was worried about a muscle or whatever being torn so he wanted Jim's arm and shoulder xrayed. With leukemia, you will bruise and etc. alot easier and a tear could lead to infection. We were still dealing with the infected sinuses so he did not want to take a chance with anything else. Of course this put off starting the chemo.

It was about 7:00 before the xray was completed and read and it was determined that it was only a pulled muscle and they could finally begin the chemo. Jim was handling everything really well earlier in the day but the more they delayed things the more nervous he got. The chemo was finally started about 7:15 and by that time Jim was having plain and simple anxiety attacks. He was sweating and hot and sick at his stomach.

I guess that it was the hardest thing that I have had to deal with since we found out that he had leukemia. It was so hard to watch him going through all this and having to be strong for him and scared yourself. We made it through the start up but we were both emotionally drained. They finally gave Jim something to calm him down and he was doing really good when I started to leave about 11:00. He had dosed off a couple of times and they nurses said they were going to give him something to help him rest better.

I left and as I started down the hall his doctor came around and walked out with me. He and I sat down and he spent quite awhile talking to me and explaining what was going on with the leukemia. He says that Jim is very healthy with the exception of the leukemia and he has to wait for test results that take over a week of get back but that from the test that he has that it looks like Jim has AML that is classed as either M4 or M5 (for those of you who know more about this than I do) He said that he really feels good about Jim getting into remission and that the prognosis looks really good. He talked to me about the emotional impact that this has on someone Jim's age and alot of other do's and don'ts. I felt much better after talking with him and it makes me feel good to know that Jim has a doctor that took the time to sit down and talk to me even at such a late hour.

Please continue to pray for us. It will be a long hard road and we have just begun. We really appreciate the calls, cards, balloons and most of all the love and support that you are all giving. Today was really hard emotionally but knowing that we have so many that share in our pain is very comforting. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I know this is rather long but I couldn't sleep and I thought that if I used this time to unwind that I might rest better. Thanks for you all being my sounding board. I will keep you updated. All my love Wanda

6/16/2000 8:10 PM EST

Today went fairly good. The nurses thought that the catheter in Jim's chest was leaking into his chest instead of going into the artery like it was suppose to. The doctors took him back down to do a flourescope (sp)- where they put dye into the catheter and look to see where it is leaking. The catheter itself was not leaking but the incision where the catheter tubes exit the body are a little to big and it is acting as a wound that is weeping excessively.

They were able to start the chemo back up and everything has gone well. Jim has been on the chemo for 24 hours now and has done very well. He has not been sick at all. They give him medication to help with that and Jim is responding to it wonderfully. He has had a good day mentally and is talking very positive. So we are through our first day of chemo treatment and counting down - only six more.

Continue to pray for us and stay in touch. All our love, Wanda

6/18/2000 9:34 PM EST

Jim had a really good day on Saturday. He had lots of company and enjoyed visiting with friends and family.

They had to start giving Jim blood again today. He is responding great to the chemo (he hasn't been sick at all). The blood counts are continuing to drop like they are suppose to do.

For those of you that don't know it, we have my 87 year old aunt that lives with us. She is a very dear person and a big part of our family. Late yesterday afternoon, Aunt Helen had two really bad pains in her head and was very dizzy. I took her to the emergency room and they have admitted her. They are not sure if she may have had a light stroke or if it could be something like inner ear trouble. They decided to admit her and run a few test to make sure that she is okay, especially at her age. Please add an extra prayer for us on her behalf. Hopefully she will check out okay and not have any other problems but we won't know for a day or two.

Thanks to everyone for all that you are doing to help us out right now. I will let you all know information about both of them as I find out. Wanda

6/19/2000 9:45 AM EST

Jim is on the fourth day of chemo now and responding very good. The chemo is working actually faster than they had thought it would. Jim's white blood count was down to 0.02 late yesterday. His platelet counts were coming down pretty fast also-don't remember the actually number. As bad as this may sound, this is what the doctors want to happen. His hemoglobin was down too low again and they had to give him 2 more units of blood. He is starting to tire very easily and I can tell that it is really starting to effect him. He has had some nausea with the chemo but has not been sick from it. The medicines that they give them now have really helped with that side effect.

Overall, Jim is doing really good and just counting down the days he has left to take the chemo treatments. He still enjoys having the phone calls and I continue to print off the email messages that you all send. "Thank You" to everyone for the visits this past weekend. Jim's spirits seemed to stay uplifted all weekend long. Thanks for all the cards that you are sending - it really does seem to boast his spirits not to mention that it is his form of decorating his room.

For the ones that have asked about donating blood for Jim. Jim is having to get blood that is CMV negative because of the positive test results to cytomegovirus. The hospital said that they are having to use the national bank register in order to get the type of blood that he needs. They said that anyone that wants to should go through the American Red Cross whereever they live and donate blood in Jim's name to the Athens Regional Hospital. This will help to build their blood bank back up. You do not have to be Jim's blood type to do this. Even though you can not give Jim blood directly it is putting blood in his name and replacing the blood that he uses. They did mention that certain types of blood are in short supply, like the type that Jim needs that has to be free of certain antibodies. It may turn out that your blood could be free of this certain antibody and Jim could ultimately end up getting it.

Aunt Helen is still in the hospital. They have gotten her blood pressure down and now running test to see why she is staying so dizzy. She is doing really good and hopefully she will be back on her feet soon. She is on the floor just above Jim so I just float between the two of them.

Please continue your prayers - we still have the bad days of chemo treatment ahead of us. I'll keep you up to date. Our love to you all. Wanda

6/20/2000 9:37 PM EST

Jim is doing really good. He still has a really good attitude and is staying very positive. He blood counts are continuing to go down just like they want them to do. I was able to spend most of the afternoon and early evening with him and the nurses there are just wonderful to him.

Aunt Helen is doing great. She is somewhat confused when I am not there at night but we plan to bring her home tomorrow and I think she will be fine. I am lining up some companion sitters to stay with her for the first couple of days, then hopefully we will only need someone to come and stay with her when we are away.

Jamie and Jordan went to the mountains with the Holly's (some friends of ours) until Sunday. I know that they will have a great time and that takes one worry off my shoulders for the next couple of days.

Thank you to everyone for all the help, I could never express my gratitude to you all. All my love. Wanda

6/21/2000 11:22 PM EST

Good news - Jim is on the last bag of chemo and should finish up with it sometime tomorrow afternoon. He is doing great and his spirits are very uplifting. I must give you all alot of that credit because I could never express how much the emails, cards, and phone calls have meant to him. He knows that he has alot to people pulling for him and that really keeps both of us going. Words could never express my gratitude.

The doctors say that it will take anywhere from 7 to 10 days for the chemo to drop the blood counts down to nothing and then it will gradually crawl back to normal. During this time, while the blood counts are at the lowest, Jim will feel the worst, and be in the biggest danger to germs and infection. He will start to feel and see the effects of the chemo treatments. I know that the hardest days are ahead of us, but I also feel very confident that Jim will beat this.

The other good news is that I was able to bring Aunt Helen home from the hospital tonight. It ended up that her thyroid was not functioning properly. The doctors have put her on thyroid medicine and her dizziness is starting to go away. We are getting some sitters to come in and stay with her for a couple of days to let her get back on her feet again. (More for our peace of mind than her actual need.) I feel very confident that she will be better now than she was before.

Please continue to pray for us and I will keep you up to date. All my love. Wanda

6/23/2000 9:28 AM EST

Jim finished his first round of chemo yesterday. He did as well as anyone could ever expect to do. His hemoglobin was down to 7.7 yesterday and he had two more units of blood. He said that this morning it was back up to 9.0. Still very low which causes him to stay very tired but high enough to keep him functioning. His platelet count was down to 19. Platelets help your blood to clot. The doctor has said that he didn't want his platelets under 20 but then he told Jim this morning that he was going to let them drop alittle lower before they give him platelets. The white blood cells are still not registering. Anytime they bottom out the test counts come back as <0.04. Jim's counts have registered 0.02 on Monday and Tuesday and since then they have registered as <0.04.

Jim is still doing very good and uplifted mentally. He slept most of the day yesterday, they give him benadryl when he gets blood so I guess that with the low blood volumes it kept knocking him out. We are at the wait and see stage and that is the hardest part. The doctor told him this morning that he is going to continue to feel worse and worse for the next week. He seems to accept this and maintains a good attitude.

Aunt Helen has done wonderful since she has been home. She actually seems to do better now than before she went into the hospital. The sitter started yesterday and she said that she does not think that Aunt Helen will need a sitter after a couple of days. Once she gets all her strength back and gains confidence in herself again she will be fine. We have decided to keep the sitter through Sunday and then decide from there if she is ready to go it alone again. I am in and out alot and only about 15 to 20 minutes from the house when I am at the hospital. The neighbors on both sides of us are going to help watch out for her and I think we'll be fine. Aunt Helen DOES NOT like anyone to hoover over her. She told be yesterday that she would agree to the sitters for my peace of mind but that she was just to independent for all that.

I have received several email from people that have donated blood in Jim's honor. I can not express my gratitude. Although Jim may not be able to get blood directly from each of you, it will help others just like him. Jim is going to continue to get anti-cytomegalovirus blood and if you happen to be one of the people in the world without this antibody it could actually get to him. If you do have the antibody your blood can to exchanged with someone that doesn't have it. More patience get the benefit of blood donations then.

Continue to pray for us and I will stay in touch. Wanda

6/23/2000 9:17 PM EST

Today has not been a very good day for Jim. He had his first day of being sick and just feeling really bad. He is really starting to feel the aches and pains that go along with chemotherapy treatment. He woke up this morning with a really bad headache and he said he just felt drained. As the day progressed he felt worse and he got sick after lunch. I left the hospital around 8:30 to come home and he said he was cold and not feeling to good. I just talked with the hospital to check on him and Jim's fever has gone to 101. This is not a good sign. They are drawing blood to see if an infection has started but we won't know anything until tomorrow. He has start having alot of sinus trouble again and with the blood counts down so low his body can't fight infections.

Please send alot of prayers up for him. He has done very good until today. His mental attitude is not what it should be at this point. He has had a hard time mentally and physically all day. Hopefully this is just a small setback.

Aunt Helen is doing very good. She is back to her normal routines and seems to be back to her old self. Thanks for the prayers sent her way.

Please keep us in your prayers and stay in touch. I'll let you know how the blood cultures turn out as soon as you find out. Wanda

6/25/2000 10:10 AM EST

Jim is still running a temperature and the doctors are not sure why yet. He is having an awful time with his sinuses. He woke up with a very bad headache this morning and the medicine that they gave him did not seem to help. They have added another antibiotic to the one he was already taking in hopes of not seeing any type infection originate.

The blood counts continue to drop. His platelet count went to 13 so he got platelets yesterday. His hemoglobin was back down in the 7.? range and they started giving him 2 more units of blood during the night last night. He has said that the top of his head is very sensitive to touch ( he can bearly comb his hair). The nurse told him that it was a sign that he was going to start losing his hair.

Over all he is doing as well as can be expected. He is going to continue to decline for the next couple of days. Hopefully his sinuses won't get infected again. Emory in Atlanta is doing the test that will determine what Jim's next treatment will be. They told us that it should be back on Tuesday. These test results are what will determine whether Jim can wipe out the leukemia with just chemo or if he will have to go through a bone marrow transplant to get rid of it.

Please continue your prayers. Pray that he will be able to get rid of the leukemia with just the chemotherapy treatments. It is so much harder to get better if you have to go through the bone marrow transplant. Athens Regional has an oncology floor for cancer patients. Being on this floor, you learn alot about cancer and what goes along with it. Jim and I learned yesterday, that it takes 7 to 8 units of blood to make 1 unit of platelets. To those of you that are still asking about giving blood, please do so. You can go to any American Red Cross Blood Drive and donate blood in Jim's honor and even though he might not get your actual donation, it will replace the blood he is getting or be used to make the platelets that he has to have. I have recieved many emails from those who have already done this. Thank you so very much.

I will keep you up to date - Stay in touch. Wanda

6/25/2000 8:12 PM EST

Jim has not had a very good day today. The doctors finally gave him morphine to help with the pain. He said his head was about to explode. The morphine helped get rid of the pain but he was pretty much out of it most of the day. He was sick at his stomach again today. They took him back down this afternoon to do another cat scan of his head. They are looking to see if his sinuses are starting to get infected. He is still running a temperature and they are looking to see why.

The girls came home today from the mountains and we took pizza over to the hospital to have supper together. We all ate and visited for a little while but he kept drifting in and out so we didn't stay long. The nurse told us that he will continue to get worse over the next couple of days. We are seeing the effects of the chemo more and more each day. It is really hard to see him getting sicker. He responded so well while he was getting the treatments. As they have told us, he will get alot worse before he will get better.

Please continue to pray for him and for Jamie and Jordan. This is really hard for them and because of the ages (Jamie - almost 12 and Jordan - 8), it is very hard for them to understand. They are just now seeing just how sick that their daddy is and he is going to get worse. We keep reassuring them that he is getting worse because of the chemo and the chemo is what will make their daddy better but it is still very hard. The girls will be home till Wednesday and then go to either Fort Valley or Butler till the week-end. I'll stay in touch. Wanda

6/27/2000 8:13 AM EST

Yesterday was a very difficult day for Jim. He did not sleep well and his headache was almost unbearable. They are giving him morphine to try to help with the pain but it doesn't always help. He is sick alot and has lost another 10 pounds in less than a week. The doctors are still not sure why he is having such severe headaches. They did a MRI on Jim yesterday to see if they could determine if it is his sinuses or if he could possible just be having a reaction to the chemo.

A wonderful friend of ours drove up to Athens yesterday to cut Jim's hair. His head is very sensitive and the nurses said that cutting his hair would be a good idea because he was showing the signs of starting to lose it anyway. Jim says that his head feels like it is bruised. It is great to have friends that will help do the hard and emotional things that go along with this. Thanks Beth - you are a true friend.

By late yesterday, Jim's headache had eased off and he was able to sit up and eat alittle. He walked just alittle before I left to come home last night. I talked to him this morning and it seems to look like a repeat of yesterday. He woke up with his head pounding during the night and they gave him the morphine again. He was sick at his stomach this morning and was trying to keep down some Gatorade.

The blood counts are still bottomed out. He will have to get platelets again today and two more units of blood probably tomorrow. It is kind of like a cycle until the blood counts start to rise. Jim is still accepting phone calls when he is able to talk. If you happen to call and he doesn't make alot of sense - it is the morphine. There will be times when he will tell you that he doesn't feel like talking but he said he still wanted to have his phone. Jim doesn't remember what he has talked about alot of times but he seems to always remember who called. He enjoys his emails and the cards are sometimes the only time we see a smile. Thank you everyone for helping keep his spirits up.

I'll keep you up to date. All my love. Wanda

6/28/2000 8:32 AM EST

Yesterday seemed to be a repeat to the day before. Jim is still very sick at his stomach and he is still having very severe headaches. They are giving him morphine pretty much around the clock right now. The doctors say that they don't want him to be in so much pain and that they are not real sure why he is having the severe headaches. The MRI that he had on Monday did not show any tumors or other problems that might cause the headaches. The ENT said that he had so much congestion that his sinuses could be the problem and with his immunity down so low they are not sure what effect it would have on him.

Jim lost another 3 pounds when they weighed him last night. He just can't seem to keep much down. He is trying to eat but he can only eat small amounts when he can eat at all. I talked to him this morning and he said he got them to give him some type of medicine for the nausea before breakfast and he was able to eat just a little. They had just given him morphine so he wasn't able to tell me much. This is the 6th day since the chemo treatments were finished. The doctor said that it usually takes 7 to 10 days to start rebounding so hopefully we will start to see some better days soon. They gave him more platelets yesterday and he is scheduled to get 2 units of blood again today.

The cytogenetics test did not tell the doctors everything that they wanted to know so the are now doing some type of F.I.S.H. test. I do not understand all the words they use but they called this test the fish test. It will take another week or two to get the results from this test so we will not know what the next phase of Jim's treatment will be until then. I thought that they would be able to tell us after the cytogenetics test whether Jim could be cured from just chemo or if he would have to have a bone marrow transplant to get rid of it. Now they say that it will take them getting the results of the fish test to determine this. Dr. Thomas in Athens is consulting with Dr. Gore at John Hopkins Cancer Center so I guess they will tell us when they figure it out.

Please continue to pray for Jim. Thank you to everyone for all your love, concern, thoughts, and prayers. It really helps to know that Jim has so much support and so many are praying for him. Wanda

6/28/2000 8:54 PM EST

Today has been alittle better for Jim. He has not been sick at all but he is still staying nausead alot. They are trying to regulate the morphine alittle better so that he will not stay half knock out but still not be in pain. The nurse told me today that he is not showing the signs that they look for to know that his bad days are about over. She said that she thinks that it is going to take longer than they expected. I am not sure how Jim will handle this mentally. He has convinced himself that he can make it through a month (like they first told him). I'm not sure how he would react if he found out that it is going to take longer for his blood counts to rebound. I decided not to tell him and to deal with it on a day to day basis. Hopefully they will start to see whatever they are watching for soon.

I wanted to let everyone know that Jim has a cousin that has created a website in Jim's honor. The website has the daily updates that I have written to let everyone that did not get the first emails know how this all started and how it has progressed. She has done a wonderful job with it and I would like for anyone that is interested to visit the web site.

http://geocities.datacellar.net/cancerring/jimfain.html

Thank you Allison for all your hard work in creating this for Jim. I know that he would be proud of the job you have done.

Please try to encourage Jim to keep fighting whenever you talk to him. He has had some pretty rough days and he has more to come. He tries to stay positive but has times when it is really hard for him. Again, if you talk to him, there are times that he will talk but he does not make alot of sense. Remember that after he gets the morphine that he does not always communicate very well. I have noticed that his speech is very sluggish but he still says that he'll take the calls. Wanda

6/29/2000 10:56 PM EST

Jim had a better day today. They got him off the IV morphine and put him on a time released tablet of morphine. He is able to handle the pain from the constant headache by taking the tablet and not stay out in left field which is what was happening with the IV morphine. The nurse told me that he was going through an amnesia effect from the IV morphine. To those of you that talked to Jim and he told you that he was up walking and eating well; the nurse said that he was saying what he wanted to be happening and was so out of his head that he couldn't tell the difference.

Today he really did get up and do some walking and he really was able to eat a little. He hasn't been able to get up and he couldn't keep hardly anything down for the past couple of days. By getting him off the IV morphine you will be able to talk to him and get the real situation. He told me today that he thought that he was really doing what he said and didn't realize that he had even done this until we told him. Unfortunately even though Jim had a pretty good day, he had a major set back.

They took him down to do a chest xray this morning and found that he has developed pneumonia in the upper lobes of both lungs. They started giving him Zithromax (for you Pfizer people) and hopefully they will be able to keep a handle on it. This is something that they feared could happen but they said that they would take things one day at a time. Jim has no immunity right now so this is a big complication.

The blood counts are still showing no signs of rebound and are still very low. Since getting the morphine regulated, Jim's attitude seemed to improve some. He gets upset whenever I have to keep pushing him to try harder and tells me that I don't understand how hard he is trying but he says that he just can't do it sometimes. It is so very hard to make him push a little harder even when you know he is giving it his all, but the nurses keep telling me that he listens to me and he does push himself more if I'm doing the coaxing rather than them. I really don't like the role that I have to take but if this will help him get better I push myself to keep harping at him. I keep waiting for the first sign of rebound and then I will know that we have made it through the first hurdle.

I have received so many emails of encouragement for Jim, myself and Jamie and Jordan. I wish that I could answer each one back individually. They really do help get me through some tough moments. It is such a comfort knowing that we all have such wonderful support and encourgement. Thank you for all the cards, the phone calls and the witty gifts that you have sent to Jim. Just as a reminder for those of you that are just getting on the update list - Jim can not have any flowers or potted plants in his hospital room. They said that anything with dirt or water will harbor bacteria and the bacteria could cause Jim to develop an infection.

I received several emails wanting me to send out the address of the website about Jim again. It is:

http://geocities.datacellar.net/cancerring/jimfain.html

I will continue to send the daily updates but if for some reason you don't receive it you can always get it from this website. All my love Wanda

6/30/2000 10:35 PM EST

Jim had a good day today. He had the best day he has had in a week. It was last Friday that he started having a rough time. Today he has been able to eat something at all three meals. He can't eat much but he was able to get something down at every meal. He is very weak but he walked for a little while this afternoon. The pneumonia seems to be breaking lose and hopefully he won't have alot of trouble with it. The nurse says that it is only in the upper tips of his lungs. He is still running a fever occassionally but it is not causing any problems. He is still having the bad headaches but the time released capsules of morphine are keeping them bearable and he is able to function without the side effects of IV morphine.

Jim is very weak and it takes a lot of energy for him to even stand up. He really put a lot to effort in moving around today. The doctor says that the more that we can get him to move the better the oxygen in his lungs moves and it helps with the pneumonia. The platelet count went down to 9 today. They had a little trouble get the platelets that he needed but they arrived and were being given to him around 8:00 pm. I would guess that if the pattern that he has been on continues that his hemoglobin will be low tomorrow and they will give him 2 more units of blood.

Today was the 8th day since the last chemo treatment. Hopefully, today is the start to the beginning of more good days. Thanks for all the support. Wanda

7/1/2000 10:27 PM EST

Jim had another really good day. He got 2 more units of blood today. He hasn't had to much problem with the headache today. The doctors determined that Jim's pneumonia was not a bacteria type. He has a type of pneumonia that has been brought on by a fungus in his lungs. They changed the medicine to treat it with late this evening. I stayed with him until about 10:30 and he was responding okay to getting this type of medication.

The nurses told me earlier today that this type of medicine can have alot of different side affects as well as many adverse reactions. They monitored him very closely for several hours to make sure that he would not have any type of reaction. The nurse said that they would continue to monitor him through the night but she didn't see that he would have any problems with it.

He sat up and talked or watched TV the whole time that I was there - something that he hasn't been able to do for awhile. The nurse gave him about 12 different type pills to take before I left. I don't think that he will stay awake after taking all that. Hopefully he will continue to have good days and we will start to see the blood counts rise.

Please continue to pray for him - he is definitely receiving the benefits. Our love to you all. Wanda

7/2/2000 9:41 PM EST

Jim had another good day. He walked for awhile today and ate about like he did yesterday. He weighed again today and lost another 2 lbs. He has lost a total of 40 pounds since all this started. He has started losing his hair. It is falling out slowly right now but it is getting quite noticable. His spirits seem to be good and upbeat.

His regular doctor will be back from vacation tomorrow so we will be given more information about his prognosis now. The doctors covering for him won't tell him much-they just tell us that Dr. Thomas will talk to us when he gets back. The doctor that saw him this morning did say that he thought we would see the blood counts start to rebound toward the end of the week. That alone is good news to hear.

Thanks to everyone for all that you are doing. All our love. Wanda

7/4/2000 2:01 PM EST

I did not get an update to everyone yesterday. Our oldest child, Jamie, is 12 years old today and her friends gave her a surprise birthday party, yesterday. It was a long and exhausting day and I did not get the update done. Jamie, Jordan and I are going to the hospital in a little while to have a little party for Jamie with Jim. We have a small cake and a couple of presents - just something simple so he can be a part of her birthday.

Jim woke up yesterday with a temperature of 102. They got his temperature down but he did not have a very good day. He said that he really felt bad. This morning he got up and was sick again - as he says (tossing his cookies). His head is hurting again and they had to increase the amount of time released morphine capsule that he gets. They took him down for another chest xray this morning - don't know the results of that yet.

The good news is that the hemoglobin and the platelets increased since yesterday on their own. This a good sign. They said that he is starting to make his own blood again. He has lost most of his hair and seems to be handling that okay. He has not felt very good today but he seemed to have a better attitude when they told him about the blood counts. We are hoping to talk to Dr. Thomas tomorrow about the cytogenetics analysis results and see what the future treatments are going to be.

I will let you know when they tell us something. Stay in touch and HAPPY 4th of JULY. Wanda

7/5/2000 8:59 PM EST

The past two days are some of the worst that Jim has had. I thought that after he had the good days that he was past the bad times. Unfortunately he has had some really difficult days again. The good news in that he pulled his platelet count up from 15 yesterday to 31 today. His body is trying to rebound. The doctors gave him 2 units of blood today and hopefully that will help make him feel better. He has not been able to keep hardly anything down and they are saying that they may have to give him IV fluids to keep him from dehydrating. He has felt terrible and has had no energy. It is really hard for him to even get up and sit in a chair.

The doctors now have him on 4 different IV antibiotics and of course the antibiotics make him feel that much worse. The doctor told me today that Jim is about where they expected him to be at this point. He has run into just about every set back that they could imagine. Dr Thomas said that they will do another bone marrow scan sometime towards that end of this week or the first of next week and then he will be able to tell us how well the chemotherapy worked this time.

In your prayers, please pray that the chemo did everything that it was suppose to do and that Jim is headed towards beating this dreaded disease. Hopefully, after receiving the 2 units of blood today, Jim will have better days ahead. As his doctor told me today, Jim is just really sick of being sick. Our love to you all. Wanda

7/6/2000 10:03 PM EST

Jim had a pretty rough day today. The doctors came in this morning and told him that his kidney's were not functioning properly due to all the antibiotics. He has broke out with a terrible rash and they say that is a reaction to the antibiotic that they were treating the pneumonia with. The infectious disease specialist stopped one of the antibiotics, changed the antibiotic for the pneumonia and changed the times that the others are given to help with the problems that he has run into now. They started him back on the IV fluids and help with the dehydration and to help flush some of this out of his system. He has had to go back on more of the IV morphine due to the headaches getting so bad again. He has been so sick for the past three days - he has had a hard time even keeping fluids down. He got really sick tonight and his nose started to bleed. His platelet count went up to 61 today so the nose bleed did not cause a problem but it scared him pretty bad until I could make him understand that the platelet count was up high enough that he was out of danger with a nose bleed. He has really had three very rough days but the blood counts are coming up very slowly.

Jim's cytogenetics analysis came back and the doctors have told us that Jim is sitting on a fence. He has 50% bad cytogenetics and 50% good cytogenetics. They have not decided for sure what that next phase of treatment will be. Dr. Thomas said that he wants to go ahead with the cross matches with Jim's two brothers. He said that if either one of them is close to being a near perfect match then he would lean toward doing the bone marrow transplant but if neither one matches closely enough the he would lean towards trying just chemotherapy. Dr. Thomas said that he wants to consult with Dr. Gore at John Hopkins and that the final decision would come from Dr. Gore. Dr. Thomas said that his main concern right now is to get Jim into remission. He may go ahead and do another bone marrow scan tomorrow to see how well this chemo treatment worked. If he doesn't do it tomorrow then he will do it the first of next week.

To those that have called or tried to call for the past couple of days. Jim has not been able to talk to anyone. We unpluged to phone for most of today because they wanted him to rest and he wasn't able to talk anyway. Please feel free to continue calling him but please understand if he is very short with you or not able to talk at all. He said to tell everyone that he really appreciates all the calls but sometimes he just is not able to talk. Sometimes just moving to answer the phone will cause him to get sick again. So please understand if he has been gruff with you when you call - he said to express his feelings of wanting to hear from everyone but it has been really rough for him at times.

Thank you for everything. All our love. Wanda

7/9/2000 10:54 PM EST

I haven't sent out an update for a couple of days. Our oldest child, Jamie, left to go to Crosspoint today. Crosspoint is a christain sports camp that she has attended with the Fort Valley Baptist Church for the past 2 years. I had to get her ready to go and get caught up on the usual daily norms - mainly washing clothes.

Jim is doing about the same. He had a bone marrow scan done Friday. We should find out the results to the first chemo's success sometime tomorrow. Dr. Thomas is going the try and start the bone marrow cross matching this week. Hopefully everything can get set up on Wednesday for Steve and Alan - Jim's two brothers- to come up and do the test.

Jim's blood counts are slowly coming up. His white blood cells are finally starting to show. Today the wbc count was 0.5. He had to get 2 more units of blood yesterday. The nurse says that it is not uncommon to see the numbers go up and down some. He is scheduled to have a lung biopsy in the morning to determine exactly what antibiotic to use to get rid of the pneumonia. He is on so much right now that the doctor feels like that is what is causing him to vomit so much and they know that the antibiotics are causing the terrible rash that he has.

Jim is going through the anger phase of being sick. Just being so sick is hard on him. If you happened to be one of the ones that has called or been by to see Jim during the past couple of days and Jim talked pretty hateful (for lack of a better word) to you, please try to understand that it is not intended the way it probably sounded. He has been so sick and he ends up taking it out on whomever happens to be there. The nurses say that this happens and it will get better as he gets better.

Jim has been so sick for so long now that he doesn't think that he is getting better sometimes. It is very hard emotionally for all of us. The girls are visiting him but it is hard on them to see him so sick and at times out of his head. He doesn't even remember what he says or does most of the time.

Please continue to pray for us. We know that even though Jim is getting alittle better that he has a long way to being in total remission. It is such a comfort to read all the emails and cards and know that so many people care and are pulling for Jim to beat this. I will let you all know the outcome of the bone marrow scan and the lung biopsy as well. Thanks for all that each of you are doing. All my love. Wanda

7/10/2000 10:35 PM EST

Jim has had a pretty rough day today. He was scheduled for a lung biopsy today and could not have anything to drink until after the biopsy. Jim did not go down until 3:00 pm today. They brought him back up about 5:00 pm and he was not allowed to drink anything for another 2 hours until the numbing in his throat was gone. He finally was allowed to drink something about 7:00 pm tonight. You can only imagine the misery that alone could cause then add to it the fact of being as sick as Jim is right now. It was a really hard day for him physically and me emotionally. It is so hard to have to see him go through all of this. He is doing okay and we hope to get the results of the biopsy and the bone marrow scan that they did Friday, sometime tomorrow. Please pray that we get some good results.

Jim's blood counts today were: white blood cell - .6, hemoglobin - 9.2, (this was down like .2), and the platelets were up to 315. The counts are slowly coming back - this is a good sign. The bad signs are that the pneumonia may be getting a little worse, the rash has gotten alot worse, and the doctors still are not sure what their next steps are going to be. I listen to these doctors and nurses and I think that I understand everything and I think that I know what is going on and the next day I go in and listen and I hear something totally different from what I thought I understood the day before. It is quite frustrating and mind boggling, not to mention stressful.

I talked to the coordinator that has been assigned to Jim at Johns Hopkins today. Dr. Gore is looking over all of Jim's records and he will be the doctor to decide what Jim's next phase of treatment will be. We should be hearing from him soon-I hope.

We are all hanging in there and handling everything fairly well. Aunt Helen is doing alot better since being put on her thyroid medicine. She seems to be so much steadier on her feet now. She worries alot about us but she is always sitting here waiting up for us to come in every night. She is my reminder to go to bed and try to rest when the time gets away from me and several times she has sat up in the night and talked to me when I just couldn't go to sleep. She always helps me see a brighter side when I get really down.

I hope to be able to send some really encouraging news about Jim tomorrow. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. All our love. Wanda

7/12/2000 8:43 AM EST

Yesterday started out a repeat of the days before. Jim was sick at his stomach, talking out of his head and just felt absolutely miserable. His white blood count was .9 so the doctors say that he is slowly getting better. He slept most of the afternoon yesterday. At 5:00 pm they brought his supper tray in. I fixed his baked potato the way he likes it and cut up his chicken, then covered it back up to stay alittle warm. He woke up and I tried to get him to eat something. He said that he didn't think that he could eat anything. I got the nurse to give him something for nausea and waited about 15 minutes then got him to eat alittle. It all stayed down. The nurse said that she would go ahead and give him the nausea medicine about 15 minutes before each meal and see if that would work everytime. If he can start eating something then he will get stronger. Keep your fingers crossed.

After Jim ate and it actually stayed down he was quite a bit clearer headed. He stayed awake for several hours and talked to me. The doctors took him off all the antibiotics except one that is for the pneumonia. He is still getting the morphine but they are cutting it back and will gradually wean him off that, as long as the head aches don't come back.

I talked to Jim this morning and he had not eaten his breakfast yet. He was very clear headed and not so thick tongued when I talked to him this morning. I think that the more he comes off the medications the better he is going to get. He said that his white blood count is up to 1.2. He said that the only problem that he had was that he coughed all night. The cough medicine that he had just wasn't working at all. He can not take anything that has codine in it, because it makes him sick at his stomach. The doctor decided to try giving him the nausea medications before a codine based cough medicine and see if it works like he did with eating. It is a long shot but I guess it is worth a try. I thought to myself this morning: I figured out a way to finally get him to eat and the doctor uses it to give him medicine. I may have lost my wonderful technique to medicine again.

Jim is really showing signs of improvement. Slow as it may be - it is improvement. Dr. Thomas said that from the bone marrow scan results, he thinks that they got all of the leukemia cells during this round of chemotherapy. He is going to get him well enough to come home then we will schedule a trip to Johns Hopkins to talk to Dr. Steve Gore. He will tell us what our options are and guide us to the next phase of treatment. Dr. Thomas has already sent all of Jim's records to Dr. Gore to be reviewing. Johns Hopkins also has the information that they need regarding Jim's two brothers and starting the bone marrow type matching. I guess we are at a wait and see step again.

Hopefully Jim will improve a little more today and get a little stronger. Thank you for each and every prayer that is said for Jim each day. Even though it gets very discouraging at times, our prayers are being answered.

The hospital asked me to send out a extra plea on my email update. The American Red Cross said it has a critical nationwide shortage of blood. The Red Cross' Southern Region, which supplies most of GA, is particularly low on types B and O. Athens Regional Medical Center is having a blood drive this Friday. This email update goes from coast to coast. So many have asked how they can help from such far away distances. This is a way that you can help. You can give blood in Jim's honor and they can give you a little card to send to him that says that. It doesn't seem like much but for someone that is in Jim's condition it is a gift of life. The blood bank representative said to tell everyone to ask about platelet donation when they go to give blood and how often you can go back and give additional donations.

As you have read through my emails, Jim has needed platelets as well as whole blood several times. It takes (I think they said) 8 units of whole blood to make 1 unit of platelets. These platelets are necessary in the survival of a leukemia patient. Jim has received quite a few of these donation cards already. When he gets one of these cards he kind of jokes in his way: This will keep me going a little while longer. If you can - please give Jim a chance to say that little phrase alot. You can go where you live and give a donation. Ask for one of the little honor donation cards and send it to Jim. Several people send me an email that they made a donation in his honor. I print them off and take them to him. These really mean a lot because without the blood donations leukemia patients would not have a chance to beat this type cancer. If you have never given blood just go and inquire about it - the Red Cross people will help you with any information that you may need.

All my love Wanda

7/14/2000 8:14 AM EST

Jim has continued to improve a little every day. The doctors have slowly taken him off of just about all the medicines that he was taking. The pneumonia is clearing up and they have stopped all the IV antibiotics. The rash is getting a little better each day. The best news is that if Jim can eat something at all three meals and keep it down then they will let him come home. His white blood count is 1.7 and his hemoglobin is up to a little over 10. He will have to stay at home until his white count gets higher but he can be at HOME.

He is still very weak which the doctors say will improve gradually also. He is still getting fluids by IV because he can't keep enough down. They think that the large amounts of medications that he was having to take has caused him not to be able to eat and by stopping everything, as soon as the medicines get out of his system, then he can eat without getting sick. He got sick this morning when he woke up but he had not eaten his breakfast yet. The doctor said that he could try taking the nausea medications before he eats to see if it will help. (Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't)

Thank you to everyone for your love, thoughts, concern and most of all the prayers. Our prayers are being answered. Even though Jim is not completely better, he has succeeded in the first round of chemotherapy and in remission enough to go ahead with whatever treatments are needed to get rid of this disease. Please continue to pray for Jim and stay in touch to encourage him to keep fighting. He has a long hard road ahead of him before he can say that he is cured.

I will continue to send out updates. I will let you know when he accomplishes his last hurdle. The doctors said he could come home tomorrow if he can eat. Hopefully he can do it today but if not I am sure it will be in the next day or so. Wanda

7/15/2000 7:10 PM EST

JIM IS HOME!!!! Jim got to come home this morning. He has done very well today. He is still weak and will have to gradually regain his strength. He has been able to eat very small amounts today and he has not been nauseated. I think just getting out of the hospital for a while was probably the best medicine he could get right now.

We have to go back to the doctor on Tuesday to do another bone marrow scan. Dr. Thomas wants to make sure that Jim is in total remission. Jim's white blood count is up to 2.3 and is slowly climbing which is a good sign. Dr. Thomas said that he will get back in touch with Dr. Gore at Johns Hopkins after this next bone marrow scan to set up our consultation up there.

Our prayers have been answered so far and we will continue to pray that Jim continues to receive good reports and one day be able to say that he beat leukemia. He has had an extremely difficult time and has a even harder experience ahead of him if they decide for sure that he needs to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Please continue to pray for him.

I want to thank each of you for all that you have done during this most difficult time. I feel that Jim responded so much better knowing that he had so many people concerned and pulling for him. Words cannot express the graditude that we have for all that was done for us. Please stay in touch and encourage Jim to continue the fight that is ahead of him with the same will that he has shown thus far. He is really struggling mentally with the fact that he has to do all of this again but worse if he has to go on with the bone marrow transplant.

I will send an update to let you know the results of the bone marrow scan. I will also keep you informed on what he will do next and when. You can email him at my email address - this computer is always running and easy for him to get to. You may also call him at home anytime. He will have to go in to the doctors office every other day but we should be home the rest of the time.

All our love. Wanda

7/19/2000 9:23 AM EST

Jim went to the doctor yesterday. They did another bone marrow scan to see if all the leukemia cells were gone so that we will know that Jim is in remission for now. The doctor was able to get the bone marrow easily although it was quite painful for Jim.

He is still very tired but it is amazing how just getting to come home has helped Jim. He is improving daily and gaining his strength back. We will not have the results of the bone marrow scan for a couple of days but I wanted to let everyone know how much better Jim was doing since he got home.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers. It has truely made a difference in the recovery process. Please pray that Jim will get a good report from this round of treatment. Will keep you all up to date has we get the information.

All our love. Jim and Wanda

7/22/2000 10:30 AM EST

We got the results to Jim's bone marrow scan late yesterday. We got wonderful news! Jim has no leukemia showing up in his bone marrow as of right now. The doctor said that everything looked really good and that the blood counts are continuing to rise like they are suppose to. They consider Jim to be in temporary remission. He will still have to continue some form of treatment to be sure that it does not come back. The doctors here are still saying that they think that doing a bone marrow transplant is the best treatment for Jim. We will be getting a second opinion from Johns Hopkins to see if they feel the same way or if they think that they can get rid of Jim's leukemia by doing several lower dose chemo treatments over the next several months. If they decide that the bone marrow transplant is the way that Jim should treat this then we will probably have to do all further treatments at Johns Hopkins.

We really are not sure what the next step will be but are thankfully that God has answered our prayers thus far. We know that it is still a long way off from being cured but Jim seems to have the fight in him to get to that day where he can say he is cured. The bone marrow transplant really scares Jim alot. He struggles with the idea of having to go through another chemo treatment like the one he just went through only with a bone marrow transplant it will be worse. Please pray that God can continue to give Jim the strength needed to make some very difficult decision about his life over the next couple of weeks.

Thank you again to everyone that has been there to give Jim those daily encouragements. Thank you for all the help that everyone has given us and continues to give. I cannot express how appreciative we are for every act of kindness that has been extended to us. We value every thought, prayer, phone call, card and daily concern that each of you have extended to us during this most difficult time in our lives. You have truely helped us get through a very difficult time.

May God Bless Each and Every One Of You.

Our Blessings To You All. Jim, Wanda, Jamie and Jordan

8/7/2000 11:31 AM EST

Jim has been doing really well. His energy level is gradually improving daily and he his appetite is improving as well. Jim and his brothers (Steve and Alan) did the HLA bone marrow matching blood test last Thursday. We talked to the representative at Johns Hopkins this morning and they confirmed that they had received all three blood test and had already started running the cross matching test. They said that we should be able to get the results of the first matching by Friday afternoon. This will confirm if either brother matches to some degree or not. If the brothers do not match at all then we will know from this test. If one or both of them match up then they will continue to do a test that matches up the blood for a transplant. With a blood relative donor transplant then the brothers have to match 3 out of 6 different catagories to be considered a donor. The second test will take another week to get those results.

All is going well here - we are getting ready for school to start on Aug. 14th. The girls are ready to go back to see all their friends but not so ready to do all the homework stuff again. Aunt Helen is still doing relatively well for her age. She has good days and bad days but over all she does fairly well. She still has days where she is dizzy most of the day but then she has other days where she doesn't have any problems.

Please continue to pray that Jim will continue to improve and be able to do the bone marrow transplant without serious complications and eventually be cured from this whole disease.

We appreciate all your prayers, love, concern, and support.

Jim, Wanda, Jamie, Jordan and Aunt Helen

9/12/2000 5:24 AM CST

This update is by me, Allison, and not Wanda. The following information was told to me by my mother, Joyce, who was at the hospital on Sunday the 10th..

Sometime Friday the 8th or Saturday the 10th Jim learned that his leukemia was no longer in remission. Plans were made for him and his brother, Alan, to charter a plan and fly to John's Hopkins to begin the bone marrow transplant proceedures. On Saturday Jim began having trouble breathing and was admitted to the hospital. On Sunday he was not getting any better. Doctors were trying to stabilize him so they could begin chemo treatments and ultimately the bone marrow transplant. Sometime around 5 p.m. his breathing worsened and the decision was made to put him on a resperator and move him to I.C.U. At about 6 p.m. his heart stopped and doctors were unable to start it again.

I have not received an email from Wanda and do not expect to for sometime. My mother said Wanda and the girls were extremely upset. If you would like to make a donation to an organization in Jim's honor, there are a couple. Please email Joyce at jabird50@yahoo.com for more information. If anyone has anything they would like to add to this account please email me by clicking the link below. I am sure I speak for everyone in saying our thoughts and prayers are with Wanda, Jaimie, Jordan and the rest of Jim's friends and family. I have placed a guestbook below so that visitors can pay their respects and send words of encouragement to Wanda and the girls. Please take a momne tto sing it and perhaps leave a memory or two about Jim.

I would like to express my gratitude to each and every one of you for all the love, care, thoughts, prayers, concern and help that you all have extended to Jim during his short bout with leukemia and recent passing away to a better place, and to myself and Jamie and Jordan for helping us through this very difficult time. I could never express in words how much these acts of love meant to Jim and to us.

I wanted to let everyone know that the last six weeks of Jim's life were wonderful. He was in total remission and lived his life to the fullest. The girls and I will always have wonderful memories of Jim during his last days on this earth. Friday, Sept. 8th, Jim and I spent the entire day together. We ate lunch together and he asked me if he could go buy me a birthday present since he had plans of being at Johns Hopkins when my birthday rolled around. We spent that afternoon with the girls and went to our favorite family restaurant with some friends on Friday night. We were planning to leave to go to Johns Hopkins on Monday morning for the bone marrow consultation. I look back on that Friday and can only remember a very happy, healthy (out of remission from cancer) man. Jim told me that his stomach was hurting when we went to bed on Friday night, so I got him some of his medicine and he went on to sleep. Sometime during the night Jim started getting sick at his stomach and was unable to rest for the remainder of the night.

Saturday morning, Sept. 9th, I called the oncologist that was on call for the weekend and he suggest that Jim go into the ER and get them out run Jim's blood counts. Jim had regular blood counts done once he went into remission and on the previous Wed his white blood count was up to 1400. Up from the approx. 500 range which is considered normal. Jim had a little congestion and the doctor told him that he was probably just fighting off a cold or sinus infection but that everything else looked fine. Jim wanted to rest for a while before we went over to the hospital that Saturday morning because he was up so much during the night, so he laid back down and rested until around 12:00 pm.

I took him over to the Athens Emer. Room and they checked Jim's blood counts. It was during this time that Jim began to have difficulty breathing. It was also at this time, that we learned that Jim's leukemia was out of remission and that it had come back with a vengeance. Jim's white blood count was 44,000 on Saturday and was climbing higher. Jim decided that he wanted to come home and talk to Jamie and Jordan at home before they admitted him into the hospital. We came home and got everything together but Jim was in so much pain that we went back to the hospital within an hour.

The doctors planned to keep him as pain free as possible until they could begin the chemotherapy again. On Sunday, Jim's breathing became so difficult that they started giving him oxygen. They changed his pain medication to morphine in the early afternoon of try to help with the sickness that was brought on by the other pain medications. Later in the afternoon Jim continued to get worse and went into respiratory arrest. The doctors made the decision to put him on a respirator until the chemo could be started, everything was lined up to begin on Monday morning.

During the process of getting Jim ready to move to ICU and be placed on the respirator he went into cardiac arrest. I have since learned that this probably happened because of the chemical imbalance that was going on in Jim's body due to the rapid development of the leukemia. Jim ultimately lost his battle with this dreaded disease, around 6:10 and September 10th. We can take solace in the fact that Jim didn't have a long suffering painful experience.

I practically lived on the oncology floor of Athens Regional Hospital for 34 days. You learn that if your loved one doesn't win the battle that their gift is to not have a long induring period of suffering. We were blessed with this gift. Jim passed away within 24 hours of being admitted to the hospital.

I would like to let everyone know that Jim's cousin still has the web site about Jim's experience with leukemia. She has added a guest book to this site. I would like for each of you to go in and give your memory of Jim, if you have not already done so. I plan to have this web site copied onto a CD for Jamie and Jordan so that when they grow older, they can read and know the wonderful person that their daddy was in the eyes of all those who knew and loved him. The website address is www.geocities.com/cancerring/jimfain.html. I will wait for a month or so to have the web site and guestbook copied.

Please forward this message to everyone that you know of that knew Jim and can give their memory of Jim as a member of the family, a friend, a coworker, or a customer. I want Jamie and Jordan to have memories from others so that they will always have a part of Jim's life.

Please continue to prayer for us and stay in touch. All our love Wanda Jamie and Jordan Fain

Thanks to my pal Debbie for sending me the lighthouse graphic.

This page updated on October 16, 2000

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