What's New

Another three days have passed.  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday have been good.

On Thursday Gavan visited for lunch; sadly, Amy has been sick and wasn't able to join us.  For Amy's sake I'll say we didn't have any fun.  That night I was able to visit Valerie, Jacob, and the baby.  He's a cute little nipper.

On Friday Emily worked and Jonas went to school while Max and I did our homeschooling.  It was a very normal day.  I went in for blood work that morning, I'll cover the details in a bit.  It was nice to be home, do chores, spend time with the boys, beat Emily at San Juan for the 12th time, and eat food that wasn't hospital food.  Everything is good at home.

Today my sister Jenny visited for an hour.  My friend Hijas is visiting this afternoon.  We'll be watching a movie this evening with the Ashbys.  It's a full day.  Jonas went to watch a couple of baseball games with Jenny and her friends.  Max purchased a popcorn and slushie from the gas station and spent most of the day playing The Legend of Zelda.  I did quite a bit of house cleaning today, the place is looking spiffy.

Okay, before moving onto the medical stuff, I feel the need to thank everyone for all that they're doing for us.  I also want to mention what a wonderful job Emily is doing.  She takes great care of me, the boys, and our life.  Everything is going very well; especially when considering how not well everything could be going.

Medical update: On Friday the blood draw showed that my platelets had climbed to 36.  They need to be 65 before they will admit me for the next round of chemo.  My neuts also need to be at 1000.  Well, my neuts were at 1000 on Friday.  They had been at 2500 a couple of days earlier.  They drop fast when I'm off the neupagen.  The plan right now, formulated by the physicians, is to check my blood on Monday and admit me Tuesday if everything is looking good.  My concern is that my neuts will keep dropping and that they'll be below 1000 when my platelets are finally over 65.  I'm not sure what we'd do then.  That's the update.  I'll be admitted on Tuesday if everything proceeds as they hope it will.  I would likely then spend a week or more in the hospital.  If I'm lucky I'll get to spend more time at home before the bone marrow transplant process begins.  On Wednesday, if I've been admitted, we'll have a consultation with a physician regarding the bone marrow transplant process.  My sister Jenny is my only match.  My other three siblings were tested and came up as not matching.  I'm feeling very lucky to have a related match; I'm all about increased chance of long term survival.  Thank you, Jenny.

Picture of the day: Jenny, Max, Jonas, and puppies.