Question Answered!

A BIG thank you to Pam and Paul Mallo, our neighbors, who gave up their social evening at Fall on the Green to go with me to visit Steve.  It's always fun to be with them, and Steve enjoys their company.  He is feeling okay today, seems to me he is getting stronger and staging for a rally.  He ate *a* grape and *an* M & M today, and drank a shorty bottle of Gatorade.  It's a start.  We have a snack buffet set-up on his dresser, ready for hunger to return.  He has the chilled fruits waiting too.  

Nothing too exciting (YAY) medically happening right now.  His labs are just hanging out, waiting for an uptick.  Hemoglobin was 7.1.  They have his Tacro up along with Magnesium and Potassium.  

I made a friend in the hall at Prentice when I was fetching ice for Steve's cooler.  Her name is Sharon, and she was pushing what Steve calls "the double-wide IV stand."  You would have to see it to understand it, let's just say it looks like a high school shop welding project.  

Sharon and I talked at length (my ice was melting) and she told me, in a very excited and positive voice, about her upcoming stem cell transplant.  Remember how we heard (I believe it was the Hogan's Heroes blog entry) that there are stem cell transplants being done at Prentice with NON-cancer patients and I was nosy as to what that meant?  Well, this was the answer to my question!!  She has an auto-immune disorder, and came from Connecticut for treatment.  

I looked up her doctor's bio, and was blown away.  Check out the future of science, better get ready, it's here!!  Dr. Richard Burt is her doctor, and she is part of a controlled clinical study.  She has a rare disorder, and did not respond to first-line therapy as 80% of those do with the same illness.  We chatted like old school chums about Neupogen, cell harvest, and the awesomeness of the staff at Northwestern.  I hope to see her again and wish her well.