There are more chapters

Vlad had his bone marrow biopsy last week. He requested pathology results asap, so Conlon responded this week and told him he has too many young cells in his blood and that, although this is normal post-chemo, it still concerns him so he will do another bone marrow biopsy in two months.

Conlon never gives us good news, with the exception of the "remission." And now I'm wondering what that actually meant. He will never get anyone's hopes up. Perhaps he did it once and has sworn off optimism after a bad experience. But he's no drama addict either, thank God. The bottom line is, his best is a guess.

On Sept. 11 we'll have a sit-down with Conlon on the full results. I need to read up on what's typical at this stage so I'll have decent questions.

Like many things in life, there's no tidy ending with this situation. I hate being a grownup sometimes. I'm sure Vlad does, too; he goes back to work Monday.

While we were spared by Gustav, Ike is looking slightly annoying. They don't know where it's really going yet. But talk about drama addicts: weathercasters are the worst, at least during hurricane season. Also on the stress front, the Chronicle is having yet another round of buyouts/layoffs. I believe it's 6% of the workforce. I considered a buyout briefly, but it's probably not a good idea. Now if I get laid off, that's another blog.