Having a good day,

which is not even diminished by this impossibly bad hospital food: if anything, it has gotten worse since Jimmy was a patient. It makes me laugh to see how they can outdo themselves from one atrocious meal to the next. How you can render a baked potato inedible is a mystery to me, but these taste like the skins are packed with bone dry sawdust.

Last night we had Mystery Meat, maybe a sort of pemmican, floating in a gelatinous goo that was dried around the edges, like a mud puddle long sitting in the hot sun; one of the sides was green beans poured straight from its industrial-sized can, and that other light orange thing? I couldn't work up enough nerve to taste it. Let Mikey do it.

Finally...

...I got checked in to the hospital. We showed up before 8 AM to see if levels were high enough, and it was mid-afternoon by the time I got to my room. But, hallelujah, Round 6 is underway: I've already had the Rituxan and Methotrexate is ongoing. This is the "B" segment of the treatment and in the past has not been as hard on me as the "A", with its Cytoxan and Vincristine. More tomorrow...

Waiting game

We got up early this morning and dragged my little suitcase to the hospital for me to be admitted, but, alas, my blood counts are STILL lower than they want them to be, and they sent us home again. We're supposed to try again on Wednesday. I know they're doing the right thing, waiting for me to get stronger before they blast me again, but it's demoralizing, losing so much time. At this rate, it'll be September before we get home; it was February when I was last in Valdosta. Today is the first day of summer, and we would so love to be home before fall.

Round 6 on hold

I was supposed to be admitted the hospital today to begin round 6 of my treatment, but my blood counts still have not come up enough, and they sent us home and told us to come back on Monday. It's getting harder and harder for my body to recover from the heavy chemo, so we weren't terribly surprised, but we hate it that it just adds more days to my sentence. We are SO ready to be finished with this.

Friday

Although there are no ulcers, my mouth has been very sore and was bleeding this morning, so off we went to the cancer clinic for even more platelets - the critical level cutoff is 20, and mine's only up to 17. They pre-medicated me, but I still broke out in hives anyway, and had to take 75 more mgs of intravenous Benedryl and two 50 mgs shots of hydrocortisone. I'm zonked, but the itching has stopped, and so has the bleeding.

Wednesday

I had to get platelets again today - they had dropped to 11, as usual lagging behind the WBC (1.6) and the RBC 3.2). We expected it, as I've been sleeping so much the last two days. This should pop me up.

Monday afternoon

My blood work today showed my WBC to be <.3, as low as they post, so as I have no immunity, we need to be especially careful the next few days. My RBC and platelets are still respectable, and I actually feel pretty good right now. They'll probably drop though - we'll see Wednesday when we go back.

Jimmy and I have been reading a lot lately. Jimmy was up until 2 this morning, finishing the third of the Steig Larrson trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. He loved it, and hated for it to finish, especially since the guy's dead and can't write any more. I've only read the first two, so I still have the third to look forward to.

5 down, 3 to go

I apologise for being so remiss in updating the blog, but have felt so mentally dull, and seem to be repeating myself, mainly whining about being so tired all the time. Jimmy and I are both doing fine, just a little weary of all this.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us get through this little episode in our life: your love and prayers and support have sustained us. You must feel like you are whistling into the wind sometimes, we seem so unresponsive, but you have kept us going. Hang in there with us, just a little longer.