Day 3

Vlad is still feeling only blah. His numbers today: White cells 0.1; hemoglobin 7.6; platelets 82. The hemoglobin number was crazy-low, so they gave him a blood transfusion around lunchtime.

He's in pretty good spirits. Max stopped by yesterday; he's a floating nurse and was working on another floor. He went over Vlad's numbers and reassured him that everything is going very well. Max, 61, was a physician in the former Soviet Union. The education didn't translate here. He went back to school, to the University of Texas, and got a nursing degree; he's an R.N. now. He's been in Sugar Land since '90.

I'm going up tonight and will spend the night. Vlad put in his order for chicken noodle soup, chili and potatoes. I bought two new food thermoses at Target a few days ago. There's no microwave in the SW pod on 11G, and walking hot soup from the NW pod is tricky. (Borscht droplets look like blood on the floor - that's got to be some kind of faux pas, right?) So I thought: A thermos! I got two at Target the other day. I'll put them to the test tonight.