Day 44 - 100%

That's the amount of donor blood in Vlad's system. What news could be better? None. :)

Day 43

Volodya continues to do well. The problem these days is to slow him down. He feels pretty good and tends to overdo it. He'll suddenly hit the wall, like he did last night, and there's nothing to do but put him to bed. I've asked him to do nothing today but sleep and putter. Will he listen? Stay tuned. :)

We're still waiting on those final results. His daily numbers are normal-for-now in that they wobble up and down a bit. It'll be awhile till they're back to a real normal.

Day 37

Illustration: Bone marrow, Gray's Anatomy

Vlad is doing very well. He got preliminary results from last week's bone marrow biopsy that show no evidence of leukemia. That's great, but it's not definitive, so no exhaling at the moment. The doctors are really wanting to know if the blood that's circulating inside Vladimir is his or the donor's. That we don't know yet. If his donor had been female, and/or had a different blood type, it would be easier to tell. But he was a man with the same blood type, so it's a more complicated process to determine. I hope we get more results tomorrow, but you just never know.

He feels pretty good, but tires easily. His CVC line is prone to bleeding more than any of the others. Maybe it's the way he sleeps on it. We have to watch it a lot.

Alex moved out of the house last Sunday. It's kind of sad not having him around, although I must say I don't miss the thermostat wars! We gave them our big couch, which they kind of wanted. So we're sans couch right now, which is interesting. I always hated that couch anyway. We're looking for leather now. There seem to be a lot of Super Bowl leather couch deals right now. A couple of stores are throwing in giant TVs with their football specials. Enticing, that.

Day 31

Yes, the absence means good things. Vlad is doing well. He's a weaker version of himself but is able to do many things.

He goes to MDA three times a week for now. This week it was Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday, he saw Dr. Alousi, who said he was ahead of the curve, but seemed slightly concerned with some of his numbers. On Thursday he had his bone marrow biopsy (Day 30). Vlad does his infusions at home on the other days. Today's numbers: WBC 3.8; RBC 3.87; hemoglobin 11.6; platelets 105; absolute neutrophils 2.24. Decent numbers.

We've quietened the social life because it kind of tires him and it throws off the rhythms that make the new normal work. There may be poker Saturday night. (This is a low-key game, not much drinking, only one of them smokes. He could handle that.) And Sunday at Nezhinskys for dinner.

Day 26

Vlad's doing well. He's wondering why he's still losing weight when he eats so much. He's feeling tired but all's well today.

I, on the other hand, had a violent 12 hours of food poisoning (I assume) on Saturday. I'm thankful it wasn't flu (and not contagious), but I'm still a bit wobbly today and am not getting the truckloads of work done this weekend I had envisioned. Alex ran out last night to get me Gatorade and bananas. By 4:30 a.m. it was over and hunger woke me up with big roar. I ate a banana, very slowly, some Gatorade and went back to bed.

Looking back, the only suspicious thing I had was a yard egg in which the raw white was too congealed to be fresh. I figured if I cooked it hard enough, it would kill any bad stuff, and I cooked it to death. That may or may not be the culprit.

Vlad canceled his poker night with Vika and Vassily, which we both hated to do. But I think it was just as well; he really wasn't ready. He went to bed early, and aside from helping me from time to time, slept hard all night.

Day 24

Vlad continues to get stronger and feel OK. He's still pretty weak, but he's able to work on his contract gig and fix a sandwich and change the battery in the smoke alarm, etc. Pretty soon, he'll be back in full honey-do mode. :)

He saw Dr. Alousi this morning at his MDA appointment. Alousi is happy with Vlad's better-than-usual progress. He got his saline today, had his Tacrolimus adjusted (to about half of what he was taking) and he's added an antibiotic that targets pneumonia, which is a common side effect. Plus with this crazy weather (3 days of lows below freezing: extremely rare for Houston -- goodbye hibiscus!) they probably are being cautious.

He's still taking the magnesium chloride, which, strangely, is the same compound being sprayed on Houston roads to keep them from icing.

Today's numbers: WBC 4.1; RBC 3.71; hemoglobin 11.3; platelets 175; and absolute neutrophils 2.39. Awesome.

He also agreed today to be in yet another study; this one on bone density. There's a known osteoporosis problem with some stem cell transplant patients. He's going to be taking Boniva in the study. That's the "one little pill" that Sally Field advertises.

Day 23

Vlad is shaving. That is all.

Day 21 - Crunch time

Mom laughing last summer while cooking pork tenderloin sandwiches.

Today, her left arm is broken in two places, above her wrist. She fell off a ladder taking down Christmas decorations. My sister, Suzanne, took her to the ER this afternoon. She sees an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow for a followup. She says she's OK and will heal to cook pork tenderloin sandwiches with that arm another day. But it's a fair guess she'll be in some pain tomorrow as the stiffness sets in. Hang in there, Mom!

Vlad is doing well today. He administered his own saline infusion today and even flushed his own lines with heparin. He's becoming quite the nurse. He goes back early tomorrow. We're headed for bed.

McVodka

Vlad sent me this in an e-mail. I don't really get it. But I don't judge. :)

Day 20

They told Vlad it would be a crazy day at MDA. He got there at 9:15 a.m. and just got into the room for his infusions. (Almost 1 p.m.) Wow. He's taking it in stride. I just hope there are no more significant wrinkles today.

His blood numbers I don't really understand: WBC 3.1; RBC 3.52; hemoglobin 10.6; platelets 208; abs neutrophils 2.02. I don't get why whites/reds are going down but hemog & platelets continue to climb. Maybe we'll figure out why.

*UPDATE: His leash is loosening again; he doesn't have to go to the hospital tomorrow. He's going to get a pump to take to the house so he can administer fluids to himself! He goes back Wednesday, but he's also off of his hospital tether this weekend! They're going to put him on oral magnesium. And if his absolute neutrophils fall below 1.5, he'll get another dose of Neupogen to stimulate the marrow again. That is all.

Day 19

Things have settled into a new normal routine. Vlad goes to M.D. Anderson every morning to have his blood tests and have fluids infused, usually for 4-5 hours. I drop him off and pick him up. On New Year's Day, I went to work downtown during his time. It worked pretty well. Saturday I came home and slept. Today, I came home and did chores. Karina, my sweet cleaning princess, came today to do the stuff I hate, namely floors and bathrooms. It helps take the edge off the mountain of stuff that piles up during such times.

Vlad is doing very well (knock on wood). His numbers continue to be normal (which is to say they move around a lot, but so far not into a bad area). He has not needed any transfusions and he's so far avoided infections (please knock on wood again). This schedule will continue for another week and a half. Then whatever they decide will change things again, we hope that means he can get fluids at home.

Oh, and he shaved his head. It looks awesome!

New Year's Eve we Skyped the Nezhinskys and toasted them "virtually" with champagne, which was pretty amusing. We had a little bit of food on the table. New Year's Day, Friday, we ate black-eyed peas and our friends Lana and John stopped by with takeout food that was tasty.

Saturday, I hit the farmer's market and got some satsumas and yard eggs. Then got more groceries at Central Market. We finally have groceries in the house. Then last evening, Linda and Terry came from Beaumont and brought a whole New Year's dinner with them: a divine roast pork, cabbage with sour cream and caraway seed, black-eyed peas with pico de gallo, and the most amazing corn bread. We had a lovely feast.

Today it's been nose-to-the-grindstone with laundry, work, dishes. We're going out to eat tonight; it's been a long time since we were able to do that. Happy New Year, indeed!