Grand Day Out...sort of

Day 81

Sorry about the lack of substantial update yesterday. Many gears are turning and many things are happening.

Today was a unique day for Ann all around. She slept late for a change and wanted to run some errands with me out of the apartment. The sleeping late is unusual because ever since her 1st round of chemo she is on "hospital time". That's measured in the span of time between a nurse waking you up to take your vitals and you being able to get back to sleep. Also, Ann tries to stay as hydrated as she possibly can, so that doesn't help with peaceful rest much.

After waking up I needed to run to Target (one of the only stores in Houston I can reliably get to and then back from) and Ann wanted to come with me. Her last CBC (Complete Blood Count) said she was no longer neutropenic so I agreed. Proper precautions still needed to be taken however. She would still have to wear a mask in public, there would be no touching anyone, no standing near groups of more than three people and if there were children around she had to get away from them immediately.

Target wasn't very busy before lunch and we didn't see many people at all (except for near the Easter candy). Ann said she felt alien walking around in a new place. Target may seem mundane to you or me, but Ann has seen nothing except the inside of MD Anderson or our charity apartment for 80 days. People by and large reacted to her as an alien presence also. People would go out of their way to give her a very, very wide berth and most didn't make direct eye contact or even smile.

Ann has been reading Charlaine Harris' book "Definitely Dead" (not crazy about the title) for the past two days and went back to reading it while I set up our new HP 5600 fax/printer/copier. I am sick and tired of having to go to MDA and pay to park if I want to fax something. So the HP should take care of that and allow us to send Ann's story to new corners of the media.

Tomorrow Ann is going back in for round 5. To bring you up to speed if you are new, right now we would be going in to start her transplant if her Employer Funded Health Plan could understand that "Medical Necessity" means "Service or treatment deemed absolutely necessary in treating a patient and the omission of such could adversely affect the patient's condition". Or that "Necessity" is an imperative defined as "essential, inevitable, inescapable, predetermined, compulsory, absolutely needed, required" by Webster's dictionary. I digress...

Tomorrow Ann will be restaged before being readmitted into the hospital for another round of Doxorubicin. A restaging is essentially what they do to new patients when they first come in to MD Anderson. Blood work and lots of it. Bone Marrow Aspirations. Lumbar Punctures. X-rays looking for solid leukemia tumors in the body cavity and breasts (yes it's creepy that leukemia can do that in addition to all the rotten things it can do already). Lumbar Punctures looking for leukemia cells in the central nervous system (this one scares me to death).

After all that we have a very special meeting. I know I have teased it, but everyone will need to be patient for a day or so more.

Plus, Ann has something funny planned to take the edge off, and hopefully make a few of you chuckle or at least smile a little.

See you tomorrow.