Finally settling down

Things are finally settling down. Went in for blood work, doc visit & bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday. Lab results came back with my red counts down (running on fumes), only thing that is close to normal is the white cells. Exam showed my spleen was huge and hard (not a good thing). Doc said he felt sad since it's been several weeks since eshap (heavy dose chemo) and I should not be needing so many transfusions. That means the eshap doesn't seem to be doing the job. Once you've gone through 2 different chemical treatments and there is still stuff left the options get more glum. Down (if you go with percentages) I went down to 5% or less survival. He did get a good chunk of marrow sample, but even if we do well in the 'no/less than' amount of cancer cells in the sample it may not matter. In other words, gang, outlook becoming more bleak.

Of course my 'sense of humor', etc., has not been the best .. very tired and wobbly legs .. have kept me in the dumps.

Anyway (darn .... having trouble getting used to this keyboard) doctor wanted me to get 3 Units of blood but it was too late to get anything started and the next day all the chairs were booked. Very busy place (only treatment center from Seattle to Montana ). The nurses were very concerned (one even said she was thinking about me at home) and got together to get me in for at least 2 that next day and then the last one. When I called with a question the nurse said come in as soon as I can and they 'would find me a bed' and pump in all 3 the same day! Wow talk about nursing care!! These ladies are real go getter's and earn every penny they get (and should get a lot more!).

Wednesday guardian angel Paige picked me up and we got upstairs and within 10 minutes we had me settled in my bed and premeds going in. Finished at 5:45 (they close at 6). After the first unit started going in I started feeling much much much better. Think the first round pumped up my humor level 'cause I started joking around again (sure missed that!). Doc stopped by and I haven't seen him in such a good joking mood in quite a while. Of course that put me in an even better mood too. He said I looked very much better than the day before. We had a good chat (some times I think he gets into that better mood when he kinda of has a handle on what he wants to do next). He wants me to get a pet scan tomorrow (Friday) .. hopefully they will be able to schedule it that soon. I'll be calling throughout the day to 'urge' them on. Just spoke to Gloria who does the insurance 'okay' and she sounded as though she hadn't even seen it yet. So I told her what the doc said and suggest she run it past him and then get back to me. I'll have to try to remember to call her back later in the afternoon if I haven't heard from her.

When we got back home my computer was over at the neighbors. She saw FEDEX man and said 'I can take that for the neighbors'. He looked a little strange at her, but then she said ... the note was on the front door that it was okay.

Jim waited as long as he could and then said he wanted to see if it booted up OK. I, of course, was NOT ready (could feel the transfusion tiredness coming on), but said I'd do it. Of course somewhere I screwed up installing something and he ended up 'fixing' it until around 1AM. Needless to say he got as much done as he could. I thought I'd give it a try and voila it works. Now all I have to do is get used to this keyboard (fingers always over one key too far). Think I'm going to load stuff nice and slow.