Round Three

2/20/07 Day 41

Here we are the at the start of the third round of chemo and I have some good news to report. Ann is feeling much better all the time and her abilities are improving incrementally, the best sign I have seen so far happened today when we left the clinic for lunch. If you have not been to MDA then you don't know how big the place really is. It's huge. Most of Ann's day is consumed at the Clark Clinic Building (the leukemia center is there) but there is another clinic, the Mays Building is a quarter of a mile away that is connected by a impressive sky bridge. Both clinics have independent cafeterias and as it happens Ann just happens to prefer the food at the Mays Building.

Normally we would catch on of the golf-cart shuttles that travel from one clinic to the other but today we were just running late and missed our ride. Ann, without prompting asked if we could walk the quarter mile instead of waiting for another shuttle. I asked if she was sure and she said "yes". So we walked the entire way at a moderate pace and she did not get tired or ask to rest! That would have been impossible for her just 40 days ago. I was so happy I nearly cried. When we told the Physicians assistant about this she said that was unusual for chemo patients this early on and was very impressed.

The other good news came from our meeting with Dr. Thomas today. Ann's blood work has shown some very good improvement over just a couple of days ago. Her Platelets are up from 28 K/uL to 85 K/uL in just 3 days. Her WBC count has fallen to 20.1 K/uL and as the Neupogen begins to wear off and round 3 starts it will drop even farther. Her Hematocrit (Hct) (from non-Doctors in the audience the Hematocrit is the percentage of your blood that is made up of red blood cells) has been steady increasing since her treatment began. Today Ann's Hct is up to 30.3% and the normal amount is somewhere between 37% and 47%. Finally her RCB count is maintaining its steady trend at 3.36 K/uL.

We got the results of an EKG test that was done on Ann's heart to see if it was strong enough to undergo a bone marrow transplant. More good news here, the EKG said Ann's heart is very healthy and looks extremely normal for someone with leukemia. What a relief it was to hear that. Finally Dr. Thomas told Ann that she is performing excellently. There have been no infections to slow down her treatments and no side effects that would cause them to want to slow down.

After the meeting with the Doctor Ann got her papers to be admitted to the hospital again. This time she is not in the PE (Protective Environment) floor. This time she is on floor 10, which is the leukemia and lymphoma floor. However, MDA is always so over booked though that I think the "names" of the floors is really just cosmetic. Ann's current room is G1044 and it has a real working toilet. I can't tell you how excited Ann was to see it.

The room also has a Murphy bed that I can fold out and stay the night with her. That makes me really happy because I miss her so much when she is there, and I worry (probably needlessly) about mishaps she might have while the chemo is being infused.

But we have taken some steps to try and make her stay better this time around. To combat the nurses constantly turning on lights and making noise when they come in to check her vitals I got her a sleep mask and a good selection of audio books on her MP3 player. She says Gatorade helps with nausea, but is not always on the menu, so I packed her sports drinks that she can slip on through the day. Finally I got clearance from the nursing staff to allow us to take a least two 10 minute walks around the floor a day, so Ann can keep her strength up. If anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them.

On another matter, we did get a call from the Gynecologist today. They have approved a plan with Ann's other Doctor's to give Ann a shot of a drug called Luprin to try and save her ovaries from the chemo. The idea seems to be to trigger an artificial menopause that would minimize the risk to her eggs and allow them to be harvested later. We will gratefully try anything. But if it doesn't work and we have to adopt then that is just what we will have to do. We would love any child we where fortunate enough to be blessed with regardless of where they came from.

Finally to fulfill a request from Ann's family in California, who say there aren't enough pictures of me. I'm including a picture of me typing the blog.

More updates tomorrow.