Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. I am going to take our news in a positive way and keep partying it up this summer. We just spoke with our doctors and they have decided to wait and do another MRI at the end of the summer. Dr. Crawford spoke with Dr. Friedman (the surgeon) and Dr. Friedman isn't convinced this is cancer. He said the "spot" is so small he would like to wait and give it another two months to see if there is any change to help their determination of what this is. It would be a risky procedure and before they put Bo through it, and with everything else he has gone through, they would like to wait.
They did apologize for flip flopping, but I assured them that if they are putting off brain surgery, I am okay with that. So we wait some more and pray, pray, pray that the "spot" leaves. The way I figure all our prayers have delayed this surgery, so a little more time and this will go away on it's own. Somehow I need to try and find a way to get Bo to meditate and visualize this leaving...
Love to All - Enjoy your weekend
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - please say a few prayers for our friend Mindy's Dad. He was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and they are going through the beginning phases of how to deal with hearing the "cancer" word. I do hope they will find their strength quickly, find the best method to fight this, and realize cancer will not get them down. If you remember my Dad was diagnosed with color cancer 4 months after Bo was diagnosed with lung cancer, no one is slowing him down! Love you all...

Just a quick note to let you know that we do not have a date yet. Dr. Friedman is out of town until tomorrow and he is going to talk with Dr. Crawford before we schedule. We "should" hear by the end of the week.
We will keep you posted.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Hello to All - I hope you are enjoying the beginnings of summer before things get crazy hot. Well things never get to crazy hot in NC, some days but in general it is all good.
Sorry it has taken so long to post, but we just heard back from the doctors this week and needless to say we needed a little time to process. (plus most our family is on a trip to the Dominican that our doctors wouldn't let us go on) It looks like Bo will be having Brain Surgery this summer. We haven't set the date yet, we are still waiting to hear. Bo is requesting June, late June, but we are unsure if time is of the essence or what. It is our understanding that our team of doctors got together to discuss the "spot" and determined the only real way to figure out what this is, is surgery. All roads would end this way, so I guess let's skip everything else and just "Get er done." (that was for Curtis) So you see now why we haven't phoned down there and mentioned over the phone, let's give them a little more time to enjoy themselves.
The procedure will be done a Duke, I guess this is the only way we got to be on every floor of the hospital there, lucky us. Dr. Freidman, who performed Ted Kennedy's procedure has signed up to take Bo (and myself) on. Seriously Bo is more agreeable (go figure) than I am most of the time. (He is sedated, (I might take that route this time) I am too nosey, oh well. We are optimistic that this will fix the problem and then we can go on living our lives. Disney here we come!
We will let you know when our "procedure" will be performed. Let's pray Bo can give us an uneventful one. I know I am praying for that. I also pray that Addi will not spend the summer in a hotel again. She is such a trooper, but you always want the best for them. She really will start to think the summer house is our summer house before long.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Finally some pictures...Easter and whatever (she loves corn)...

Love to All

Christi, Bo and Addi

Hello to all - We make it back from another day at Duke. (I hate long posts, love to talk, but hate long posts) We have a few things to figure out and we are trusting the doctors to make the right decisions. One of the "spots" is still suspicious. And with that I mean, they think it might be growing, they are unsure. You ask how can one of the top hospitals in the country but unsure...I know. Every time you get a scan the scanner gets different pictures from the time before. The first time, they saw the spot, but couldn't read it very well. The second time they felt like they got a better picture and the brain specialist wanted to investigate, but our oncologist (with the year Bo has had) felt comfortable waiting and seeing if it will leave on its own or not change. So they agreed to wait, as long as nothing changed. Well without the specialist looking at it, just the radiology department (which could be someone different every time) felt that it might have grown.
So you ask now what...first we pray then we differ to the doctors to make one of three possible choices. 1st decide isn't nothing (of course I am voting for that one) 2nd - determine radiation might work and go that route (hmmmm Bo losing more brain cells, I always said I could love him no matter what - unless he is stupid, dumb I cannot handle) or 3rd surgery. If brain surgery can be minor, this would be minor and would result in another hospital stay. This could be the only way we will definitely know what this "spot" is. So with all that being said, we have made no decisions on how to proceed on preventing BAC from coming back (we will handle this once the "spot" is taken care of...if possible)
I think I will write a new "Spot" Book. See Spot Run. See Spot Jump. See Spot Disappear. Goodbye Spot. I think today was a long day...
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - We have some big days to celebrate this year...just a reminder -
May 27th - 1st Transplant - I would forget this one altogether if I could
June 1st - 2nd Transplant 2008 - Bo diagnosed with Lung Cancer 2006
June 6, 2006 - 06/06/06 - Dr. Crawford and Susan confirmed cancer but became our angels (I knew on this day the world ended, but one something ends a new life begins and for that I am grateful, we found new friends, fell in love with old friends again and the power of friendship and prayers)

I am sure most of you in Kansas saw this article and are aware...but please pray for our dear friends, Red Dog and Beverly. They are fighting as I expected them to do and raising awareness about Prostrate Cancer. If you are in the Lawrence area this summer you should go and work out. I helped for many years and miss it so much now (so does my hips!)
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/apr/27/bracelets-available-support-dog-days-founder-help-/

Another fabulous weekend down. The weather held off most of the weekend and we just hung out as a family. Some cleaning, getting some stuff done around the house, a lot of dress up and cleaning toys up and some Friday Night Movie Night.
This week we are off the Duke on Tuesday for another Brain MRI, this should hopefully be out last one as long for a while, as long as nothing changes. (We are praying for stable, but we will take gone as well) We will hopefully get to talk about future treatment plans for Bo and keeping the cancer away. All of that has been on hold waiting to get Bo back and fully functioning and also making sure there was nothing going on in that head of his...hahaha - I might need to check and make sure there is something in there. Funny I know.... The future treatment plan is exciting, but kind of like waiting for the transplant call. I am assuming this plan will go smoother and easier than transplant, but with Bo you never know. We are unsure of what path to take, how Bo will react to medicines or chemo if we go that route. I am sort of deferring to the doctors and dragging my feet. Lord knows I do not want to cancer to come back, but it feels like yesterday that I got to get me Bo back. Selfishly I want him for a little longer, but I would never chance that cancer coming back. So off we go to talk with the doctors.
Thanks for you love and support and I promise I will post of pictures of Addi soon - Easter - dress up and everything else she does.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - if you are wondering what happened to Bo, "crack-book" I mean facebook...

We had another great weekend. This weekend we didn't plan to much, we celebrated our 5th anniversary, remember we kept it easy for Bo 04-24-04...We took Addi to the movies to see "Earth". She did better this time, but no shock to anyone, our child talks a lot. I forgot suckers, that I normally bring to help keep her quite. She loved the ducks trying to fly and over course the elephants. After the movie, she showed her Mommy's talent of the crane toy games...I love those and she won her first toy, Dopey.
Saturday Bo worked out with the trainer and then we went out of the boat. Addi loves to go fast and giggles as the wind blows in her ears. The water is still too cold. The kid also loves to fish. We lost our first fished rod earlier in the week, it is at the bottom of the lake, but after many tears and begging the fishys to bring it back, Mommy was back a Target for another one. We are back in the fishing world, Mommy even got her fishing license. So we will Bo be sitting at the end of the dock.
Sunday was church and donuts. Then back out on the boat for just a little bit. Rest and then I drug Bo to see Legally Blonde the play. It was cute, but Bo said he paid his dues for our anniversary.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - We see Dr. Crawford and Susan on May 5th for our next and hopefully last brain MRI, at least for a while.

Hello to All - Believe it or not, Bo and I have made it another year. 5 years married. Another small miracle for us to add to our list of blessings. What an amazing 5 years it has been. As in stride with being parents we spent the evening taking Addi to see, Earth, which was good, (thankfully no animals had dinner on the screen - not quite ready to explain) Addi did much better making it through the movie, it helped that she had two laps to jump on, a huge bag of popcorn, and some Coke. I know not good, but her juice went way to fast for the popcorn.
Addi news, we are now proud parent's of 6 caterpillars. Let's hope they do better than the fish. I gave up on them this past summer for obvious reasons and well, one straight jumped out of the tank. I can certainly take a hint. She never ceases to amaze me with her sassiness (is that a word), but the girl has some spunk. She is getting quite funny with it. At the moment I am to tried to think of any, so hopefully tomorrow morning I can get some pictures up and some new stories.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
Also we are still tallying the numbers of from last weekend, but right now we have raised about $12,000 to match the $12,000 that our friends donated through Eric Thomes. It looks like Duke will be getting close to $25,000 from us. Yeah....a big thank you to Dr. Crawford and Susan for making another appearance. I tell you they are awesome and were so happy to see how much better Bo is progressing since we tweaked his meds some. This should be one great summer!
PS - Sassiness is not a word, but I left it...

Well - we had another wonderful event. Thank you to everyone that attended what a fabulous turnout and a wonderful time. If you have pictures, send some my way and we will use the again for next year's slide show. A huge that you to the helpers with out you this would be so much harder. My neighbor Michelle and her husband helped a ton, it truly wouldn't happen with out them. Phil great job with the live auction, I am just glad a Carolina fan walked away with the basketball. I dare might say we have found out event...I think you gamblers out there are a little surprising. And for that missed the 3 cute young men at the end of the craps table, that was Bo's Papa, Dad and Uncle Mutt. I met them when they came in and then I knew whenever I needed them again they would be causing a scene on the table.
I will post pictures soon!
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - For those that asked our live music was JT from Raleigh, if you want his info. I can get it to you. Thanks JT, you were awesome, of course!

Hello to All - Life is good right now. I am always a little afraid to say that, but day by day and today was good. We had a little Easter Brunch with Grams and Papa and then some egg hunting, I will post pictures soon. Addi was so cute in her little dress. I do not normally put her in dresses, we never have a moment we do not have a boo-boo on our knees and pants seem to help that (she runs everywhere). But did she love to twirl today! Around and around we went. Then we decorated some eggs, went out to dinner, visited with Mr. B and Ms. Jennifer. What a good day, I am sure tomorrow will be even better.
I do have to apologize last weekend we had a wonderful "surprise" party for Bo to kick off our Addi's Cure event this upcoming weekend. Our good friend Eric helped to raise some money, just a little...over $12,000! Amazing and this is just to start things. He went to his home office and some of Bo's friendly competitors, you all are so wonderful...THANK YOU. With the economy the way it is right now, we are truly blessed that you all still support our efforts to find a cure for lung cancer. I always tell Bo that we will never stop raising money, I am not sure which dollar will save him, but we will raise that dollar and more to save him and others.
With that being said, we still have plenty of tickets left for our event "Beating the Odds" next weekend, April 18th. So if you have time to spare and money to burn, please, please come. There will be a limited number of tickets at the door, so if you want to get your ahead of time email info@addiscure.org or me or Bo. We would love to see everyone in person, play with some funny money, win a 50 inch TV, bid on some silent auction items and have fun for all. There will be some food, desserts and a cash bar as well.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - Congrats to the Tarheels! I am so happy for Coach...but I do like Dicky V. picking KU as number 1 for next year!

Addi's new saying after we finish cleaning the boat, "Mom, this is the life."
Love that kid
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Well finally the sun is back. It really came back yesterday, but I didn't want to jinx it and it looks like it will be here all day! I am even more happy to say that Bo is back on the golf course today! The first time since transplant! knowing him I am sure he will be very frustrated with his game, but I am sure there was a time he doubted he would ever be there. He head cold is finally going away, so that makes me feel better, although Addi might have it. I think she also has some allergy to something, so it might be that also. Darn those allergies.
So Addi and I are off to plant more flowers/
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS - not trying to beat a dead horse, but we still have tickets for sale for our Addi's Cure event. we just secured our big prize - a 50in Flatscreen TV from Best Buy in Mooresville! come and play! Just email me if you need tickets...

Hello to All! The rain is finally moving out and we now get to play outside! Yeah...Addi just watched the new Barbie movie Thumbilena? (however you spell that) and now ever tulip we pass carries a fairy inside it. I feel bad for our neighbors because they have some beautiful tulips and we are always in their yard trying to see a fairy.
Another funny Addi story. Just when you think they are not paying attention...Addi and I are at church and for communion (we are catholic) they just give the little kids a blessing. We now at our house the coasters are communion and she get the be the priest (whom every time she sees him she asks me that that is God) and she pretends to get it out with a "Peace be with You" We still pray for Uncle Leon first and then everyone else. Not quite sure what Uncle Leon did, but heaven's gate it wide open for him.
Switching gears. Tickets are being sold for the Addi's Cure event. Please either email info@addiscure.org or ask whom you bought from last year. We are so excited for this year's event and getting to see our friends that we haven't really been able to spend the last year with. We certainly understand the economic times, but we do hope you all can make it. Also if you are on Facebook, look for Addi's Cure, we are now spreading the news that way as well. Please invite everyone you know!
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi (the priest)

Here is a little something that if you have time would be wonderful for Addi's Cure. Thank you so much Miss Candy, you will always have a special place in our hearts, especially Addi's!
Miss Candy is a local, fabulous, photographer that would like to honor her father with her "dream job" If you have a moment please follow the link to vote for her. If she wins she is donating the winnings of $50,000 to Addi's Cure. Below is her Posting...


Make it count
My dream assignment is celebrate my father's life. Make every day, every action count. Love, work, give, relax as though your life depends on it.
Because it does.
Today is my father's 57th birthday, but he is not here to celebrate it.
In October, he lost his five year battle with lung cancer. In the spirit of his giving nature, my dream assignment is to donate the assignment funds to Addi's Cure and then document the effects. Addi's Cure donates directly to research at Duke Medical Hospital, specifically for lung cancer, and since I am close, I would so enjoy seeing the difference, the real difference, the research is making in people's lives. My father underwent several clinical trials during his treatment. When I asked him about it, he said that someone did it for him and he got to be around longer because of it, so he wanted to do the same for someone else. I know I wouldn't see the immediate effects of the donation, but I could document the cumulative effects of donations and research to date. That all sounds so clinical, but it wouldn't when I could capture a family after good news or a patient who walks in, on his or her own feet, for a checkup years after a lung transplant or doctors who know what they're doing is changing lives. Lung cancer is comparatively underfunded and has a societal bias of patients bringing the disease on themselves.
Addi's Cure works to change both, and I, like my my father, would like to help.
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/candyhoward/make-it-count/

Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Sorry due to playing phone tag, we finally found out about Bo's test results. He came back pretty much negative on everyone. No rejection, No CMV and no Infection. So now we tweak more medicines. He is moving down to a lower dose on the steroids and some on the anti-rejection meds. I am not sure when we will go back for another appointment, the transplant coordinator told Bo and well Bo being Bo, he forgot. I guess when we get the paperwork we will know and make it work.
On another note, Bo mentioned that today was his best day yet, post transplant. So Yeah for that!
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Hello and sorry again...when we got back we had a nice surprise of Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Leon and Aunt Marilyn at the front door. So we have been having so much fun, much less Addi played so hard with CJ and Hannah, she went to bed at 6:45.
The doctor visit was uneventful, Thank God. We will not have the result back from the doctors until Monday (so possibly Tuesday). We are hoping and thinking they will say everything is going well and we can keep coming off some of the medicines. Bo made it through the initial tests great, they want him to increase his cardio to make his PFT's better, so we will have to get Dave the trainer on that one. They Biopsy went well and his visit with the ENT doctors showed that his vocal cords are working well. They are not as "plump" as they would like them, but we are going to pass on surgery to make them fuller.
I will be sure to post as soon as we hear anything.
We are off the play.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Hello to All - Busy, Busy, Busy - that is the word for this week! The rainy weekend made our house very unproductive, so now we have to have our game face on. Thursday we visit Duke for another biopsy. As scary as this is everytime, we are slowly learning to deal with them. This will be another all day visit with Bo getting his vitals checked, PFTs and bloodwork. Then we sit and wait for our turn at a bronch/biopsy. We pray that they have an uneventful day so they run somewhat close to time. We wait in recovery then off to visit with the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) doctor. Bo appears to be a little hoarse so they want to make sure everything his healed properly and there is no further nerve damage. After all that we visit with Dr. Palmer, discuss meds and hopefully leave. We will not get the results for a couple of days about rejection and infection.
When we get back we will hopefully beat my family that is coming to visit after visiting with my little sister in Conn. What driving they do. Addi is so excited I am not sure what she is going to do when they get her. All she talks about is painting Papa-Cow's toe nails. He sure takes one for the team. They are just doing a quick visit since they are driving all over the east coast.
With all the being said, "Beating the Odds" is in full force. Tickets are for sale! So please, please, tell all your friends and family. After the year Bo has had we would love to see everyone we know for a good time! They are $50 again with half the proceeds going to Addi's Cure. We are having this as a casino night so be ready for some Texas Hold'em, Blackjack, Roulette, and Craps. It should be one great night. I do have to admit this is coming up quickly, so if anyone has some free time, let me know. We would love the help.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Hello - I hope you all are enjoying the weather we are getting right now. For those of you not in North Carolina, we are high 70's and sun. Don't worry we are about to get cold and rainy, but it sure is nice right now.
Things here are good. We are trying to enjoy the weather as much as possible with a lot of family outings. Addi is getting good at riding her bike. We are still working on the slow down, shocker that she likes to go fast. She made it about a mile the other day. Her and Daddy have been walking the dogs a lot. Which is good entertainment on our street. Bo is doing well. The weather is helping. Still tired a lot, but he is pushing through and doing things with out little girl. We might have to take the boat out and eat dinner on the lake soon.
A funny story about Addi. Whenever she is running around without her pj top on or Daddy doesn't have his top on, she thinks that is "handsome". It is cute to hear her wake up Daddy in the morning and say, "Daddy you are handsome." The she like to have no clothes on and be handsome. Unfortunately, lately there have been some shows, The Bachelor, where they are "handsome" also. But Daddy certainly is the most handsome of them all!
Crazy kid
Love
Christi, Bo and Addi

Hello and so sorry. Yesterday was such a long day that we went to bed almost right after we got home. Sorry Lena and family that has been doing a phone tree. We got neutraul news. It appears that nothing has changed. Unfortunately when you do a MRI you can't guarantee that the machine will image exactly the same way or that the same person will analyze the images. Dr. Crawford says that the lab believes the spots appear the same, which is good. Dr. Crawford is going to again send the MRI to Dr. Kirkpatrick, the specialist and let him look at it and confirm that nothing as changed and see if he can reassess anything. So we wait for him to confirm and we are going to come back up in 2 months and pray that it either leaves or stays the same.
Sorry for taking so long to notify everyone, we will do better next time.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi