Saturday: Full house

Above: Bill shows Vlad his poker face while they watch World Poker Tour today.

Vlad is feeling really well today, prompting more than one person to ask, "Why are you even in the hospital?" He has a few more days until the chemo begins to take its toll. His sugar numbers were better and he thinks it's because he stopped agreeing to take the insulin. His sugar at 5 p.m. was 206. The nephrologist visited and said the kidneys continue to improve as did creatinine numbers. The pulmonary doc couldn't get over how good Vlad looked. Although Vlad still coughs, it's not quite as much and is much more productive. He has had no fever for 2 days. Conlon's surrogate was also pleased but offered no specifics.

Bill and I got some A/C supplies at Ace Hardware and he got down to fixing the condenser line. It appears the culprit is some kind of rodent that chewed a sizable hole in the pipe. Now it appears we need to set traps. Oi. We've been home about an hour and turned the A/C on then. So far so good.

I was at the hospital late morning then went to pick up Bill back at the house and run some errands -- Rockets paraphernalia for tomorrow's game (hats for everybody!), Vlad snacks, etc. We went back to the hospital and stayed till after 9:30 pm.

Today's visitors included: Vlad's friend Sevelly and his wife; Alex's best friend Nick Barron; and Liliya and Nailiya, who brought borscht. Callers included Valiya, Joseph from P, John, Alex and Mom.