Thanks for your concern over Amy’s health.

All correspondence can be directed to Amy Dykes PO BOX 829 Athens, GA 30603.

4/24/04: Amy was taken to the Emergency room at Fair Oaks Hospital in Farifax, VA with swelling of her face and neck. I am the World Trade Center was on tour and Amy’s face and neck were swelling. When she said she was having trouble breathing, Dan immediately took her from their Hotel near DC to the Hospital.

4/25/04: After preliminary tests, it was found that there was an unidentified mass in her chest. She was admitted to the Fair Oaks’ Telemetry wing for further testing. After several painful tests, it was revealed that the mass was a tumor and samples were sent to pathology for a diagnosis. Amy was put on steroids and antibiotics. She was also determined to be extremely anemic and was given two units of blood to restore her blood count.

4/26/04: This was a day of waiting for test results.

4/27/04: After a couple of long days waiting, early suspicions were confirmed and Amy was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; cancer of the Lymphatic System. You can learn more at http://www.lymphomainfo.net/hodgkins/. We don’t know what stage she is at yet and are waiting for further results. Amy and Dan are leaving for Athens today where Amy will begin Chemotherapy.

4/28/04: We arrived in Athens today. Amy has an appointment with an Oncologist on Friday morning.

4/29/04: After looking at her files, the doctor decided Amy had to come in today. Amy had many tests and prepared for chemotherapy which will start tomorrow. She had another bone marrow biopsy and it was really painful. She had too many needles stuck in her and is in great pain. They installed a medport to administer her chemo therapy medication.

4/30/04: Today was the first day of chemotherapy. They gave Amy the standard 4 drug therapy for her condition. They also gave her a bunch of drugs to combat the nausea associated with the therapy. The whole process took about 5 hours. It went better than expected. She has not yet vomited and is actually up and about this evening. Amy's family has arrived and are taking good care of her.

5/1/04 We all worked in the yard today and Amy is doing very well. She gets tired a lot and has to take naps, but she is in good spirits.

5/2/04 Today Amy was very tired, having her family here was great, but it really wore her out. They are leaving today and Amy is going to sleep for a long time after they return home.

5/3/04 Amy is still doing well, but you can tell she is feeling some of the effects of the Chemotherapy. We decided today that the show at the 40watt friday will go on, it will be our last show for a very long time. We are also still going to have her birtday party at the Caledonia on saturday. She is turning 30, so she needs some extra love.

She still is up and about and still hasn't thrown up yet, so I guess that is good. She was concerned about her medport and we went to the hospital to have it checked out. They said it was okay. She has a blood clot in her right arm that we are concerned about, we have asked all the doctors, but no one seems to want to address it, we are going to hope it is okay.

5/4/04 Amy had to get a PET scan today. This pinpoints the tumors and provides as a baseline for the treatment. She was injected with radioactive dye (a fluoride isotope). We think she may have been alergic to it as she got very tired and felt horrible today.

5/5/04 Amy woke up with a lot more energy today, hopefully this will continue on.

5/12/04 It has been a while since the last update. We played this weekend, it was actually really fun and Amy was able to play 8 songs instead of the 5 we had planned on. She also sang with the paper lions, she looked great and was feeling pretty good considering. On Saturday we had a birthday party for her. It was at the Caledonia and was non-smoking so a lot of people just sat outside and smoked. Amy couldn't go out there so that kind of sucked. We are hoping people get the hint and quit smoking soon since she can't go anywhere near smoke because she has tumors in her chest.

Amy had a Procrit shot on friday, it is supposed to help her bone marrow regenerate and make more blood cells. Those shots hurt, so she isn't too keen on them. Her next chemo was scheduled for thursday, but she changed the appointment because she wanted to have one more day of feeling good.

We have been getting lots of get well cards and birthday presents. Amy appreciates it so much and it really lights her face up when she gets them, so please, keep them coming.

5/18/04 Amy had chemo on Friday. This time it has been a little more difficult than the first time. The therapy went fine, but she has been very tired and has been having random side effects. She got a rash after her PET scan and we think it may have been from the radioactive dye they injected her with. The doctors were very encouraging though stating her red blood cell count was back to normal after her anemia was treated. Soon she may not have to get the painful Procrit shots anymore which would make her very happy. She still has yet to throw up, the new anti-nausea meds seem to work pretty well with her.

7/14/04 It has been a long time since the last update. Mainly because nothing has changed. Amy had a blood clot in her leg a couple of weeks ago and she had to get shots in her stomach every morning for ten days until it was gone. Now she is on blood thinner which should keep the clots from coming back. Other than that, she has just been very tired, although she has been going out and djaying at the GO Bar on Wednesday nights.

7/30/04 Amy had a PT scan to re-stage her cancer and to everyone’s surprise, the tumors are disappearing and are almost gone!!! This is a very big step forward and it looks like things are going to get better. She still has to finish out her chemo, but it is working!

8/3/04 Amy has had some complications recently. She has been admitted to Athens Regional Medical Center’s intensive care unit and diagnosed with what is believed to be Pneumocystis. She contracted this because her immune system has been compromised from chemotherapy and she was unable to fight it off. On Saturday Amy had a fever of 102.1. It lasted through Sunday when we took her to the emergency room at ARMC. She is stable but is on a ventilator and is under close monitoring. Her condition has recently started to improve slightly and everyone is optimistic. Please keep her in your thoughts.

8/12/04 Amy came home from the hospital on Tuesday. She is doing much better, it was a very scary experience, but she made it through. She is going to be a lot more careful about where she hangs out now. She was running pretty hard and it caught up with her. She starts teaching on Thursday and is excited to get to work.

9/7/04 So it has been a strange couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, Amy was bitten by a cat which turned out to be rabid. The cat was hanging out in our backyard screaming and Dan went out to check on it. It hissed at him so he went inside to call animal control, Amy went outside to check it out and it jumped 4ft in the air and bit her leg. She was rushed to the hospital and began rabies vaccination which she now has to get every week. It is a shot in the arm now, not in the stomach like it used to be, so it isn’t that bad, but it is still horrible. This is NOT what she needed. Two others were bit by the same cat and it finally died in a yard near our house. It was tested for rabies by the CDC in Atlanta and the results came back positive. This puts yet another financial stress on Amy as this treatment is costing her money as well.

Hopefully, she will get through this all soon as her cancer recovery still seems to be going well. She had Chemo on Friday and is really drained, but is holding up as best she can. Please keep the good thoughts coming. We are holding a benefit for her at the 40watt in Athens on September 24^th and we hope to see many of you there!