Happy Mother's Day

Vlad is doing well, except for the anemia. Last week his white cells were normal for a healthy person, at 7.1 and the platelets were sky-high, which is a good sign.

He was way out of neutropenia so we were safe to go to Fort Worth to visit Mom & Suz & the girls for Mother's Day. My cousin Stevie received her master's degree from Dallas Theological Seminary on Saturday and we went by the reception to celebrate and to visit with her family, who Vlad and I don't get to see often. Her daughter Mary is with the State Department and will be going to Baghdad for visa duty. Her family is pretty much scared to death, but she says it's great for her career and is looking forward to the adventure.

Before that we stopped in Richardson to see my Dad's and grandparents' graves and leave flowers. Then we went to check out a new supermarket in my old Richardson neighborhood, Zituna World Market, that was advertised in the Russian newspaper, Our Texas. It turned out to be a smaller Phoenicia and though it was a nice place, it's not anything we need to drive out of our way for. In the same shopping center is the Euro Deli, a tiny store run by a Ukrainian guy. Reminds of of Grisha's place, Moscow, which closed a couple of weeks ago.

We had a nice time. On the way there we stopped at a roadside fruit stand in Fairfield. Run by Cooper Farms. We got some of their first peaches of the season, little clings, not overly wonderful, but they are fresh peaches. They also had red onions pulled from the ground that morning and killer strawberries. Much more. It was heaven. We stopped at Cole's there for a barbecue sandwich. It's some of the best barbecue I've ever had.

As it happened we stopped there on the way back as well. And Cooper's stand was still open at 5:30 on a Sunday, so we replenished what we dropped off in DFW. We hit 3 traffic backups on the way home and didn't get to our house until 9:30.

Anyway, we found out today Vlad will go back for Chemo #2 on Thursday morning. So we'll have more numbers to report then.

Thanks to all of you for your notes and calls and prayers!

Here are a couple of videos we shot of my sister's kids while we were there. Fun times.

Home again, home again

Vlad is home again, yay! He got out just before noon. We came home and had a big breakfast. Today's numbers are:

White cells: 1.6
Hemoglobin: 9.7
Platelets: 45,000

No more neutropenia, but the patient still has dizzy spells. And his mouth is going downhill again. We're hoping it will not be as bad this time.

Next appointment on Tuesday.

Happy Saturday from NBA title-less Houston

Rockets fell apart in Game 6 of their playoffs with the WWF, er Utah, last night. That's a photo of poor Yao shot last night in the uber-ugly fourth quarter by Nick de la Torre of the Houston Chronicle. I wish we were still in, you know: With Yao and Stevie and without Rafer's ankle injury last night. I think this disabled team played to its limits through adversity, but they just could not overcome the monster that was Utah. The Jazz are not only a physically aggressive bunch; they're smart and extremely talented. Watching them and the Lakers will be some fun.

But at the beginning of the Rockets season there was so much promise. Amazing team. And Bonzi was there, too. The painful trades made the team better. Then Yao was out. Then Stevie. And Rafer's ankle? Maybe he would have mended in time to get back in. But I don't think we could've gone all the way without Rafer.

Anyhoo, there are some numbers to report:

99.3 fever (eeuuuuuuwww)
1.3 white cells (yeah!)
29,000 platelets (yeah!)
8.5 hemoglobin (yeah!)
2.84 red BC (yeah!)

All is well but the fever. Conlon said this morning that Monday is the earliest he can go home.

I did some office work this morning. There's still so much more to do. I'm going to get coffee, maybe have a good cry, and put one foot in front of the other and get on with it.

We got good news yesterday. Vlad cleared the pre-existing condition hurdle with the short-term disability people. They're sending a check next week, retroactive for four weeks. That'll take the edge off any financial concerns. There's still some issues about how long they're covering us. We fully expect another "broomstick" event, and then probably another. Lucky for me, Vlad loves to argue with these people. If only I had a nickel for everytime I've heard him say, "I want to speak to your manager."

Blood numbers

This just in:

White BC: 700
Platelets: 27,000
Red BC: 2.6
Hemoglobin: 7.9

I don't know what it means post-fever crisis, but it kinda sounds like more normal neutropenia numbers, slouching toward nadir, if not nadir itself.

Morning report

Just talked with Vlad. His temp is 98.7 this morning. He woke up last night in a sweat. His T-shirt was wringing wet and Ruby disconnected his lines so he could change T-shirts.

Conlon came by at 6:30 a.m., but no numbers were (are) available from this morning's blood draw. Vlad told him since his temp was normal he was ready to go home. But Conlon's no fun. However he's on call this weekend, so Vlad plans to bug him about going home every single day.

Conlon said the dramatic platelet drop (from 15,000 to 4,000 in a couple of hours yesterday) isn't unusual for a neutropenic patient with a fever. Vlad also had red spots on one arm, like a rash, pop up about 11 a.m. yesterday. That was because of the platelet drop, Conlon said today.

Anyway, neutropenia sucks. In case you didn't know.

Platelets at last

Vlad finally started getting his platelet transfusion after 9 p.m. We started this journey about 12 hours earlier. Ruby is his night nurse; she is such a comfort. Found out tonight she's Filipino. Her husband is Thai and he speaks Thai, Tagalog and English. Their girls have learned to speak (but not to write) Thai. Ruby speaks Tagalog and perfect English. She and Vlad were comparing language stories; he was telling her about taking Alex to Odessa and his getting reaquainted with Russian.

Anyway, his fever went to 102 tonight. His platelets dived to 4,000, which is critical, Clementine said. She ordered the platelet transfusion herself. I don't know why Conlon didn't order it. Ruby said he never called after Susy, today's nurse, paged him on several questions. Oh well.

Vlad was very cranky tonight, but who can blame him. He feels like crap and he refused to get a glucose blood test because he couldn't stand being stuck any more today.

His fever finally started coming down. At about 101, Ruby gave him a bunch of Benadryl before the platelets, which should knock him out. As the platelets started flowing, I left about 9:30 p.m. All the gates were locked, save one tonight. I had to drive to the east side of the entire complex to get out. Maybe it's a new security deal.

Back in the pokey

Vlad was sentenced to another stay at MHSW when he showed up at Conlon's this morning with a 100.8 degree fever. He had gone in for a platelet transfusion but the fever changed the priorities. He finally got settled in around noon. The chemo is making his veins difficult to work with, so opening a line took the better part of an hour. In the end it took no less than 4 R.N.s to accomplish the task. He was in considerable pain off and on.

He's there probably through Sunday. He's in a different room: 1007. The number there is 713-778-7025. He also has his cell phone.

His numbers this morning: White cells 1.0, hemoglobin 9.3 and platelets 15,000. Now he's getting antibiotics through a drip. He's feeling "better," but it takes very little excitement for him to nosedive.

We had a mini-reunion with Clementine, LaVorne and Sarasu. Clementine was talking trash about the Rockets again. (Typical Lakers fan)

Anyway, came home for awhile to take a nap. Last night I pulled double duty and did today's work as well as yesterday's. So tomorrow I'll have to work all the more to get the weekend's work done. But it was nice not having to worry about work and the clock today.