Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti, er Clinic Day!

We had an early clinic appointment at The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center today.  That's the official name, in case there is a quiz.  I can't pronounce Lurie without ooooooooing the "u" and that makes me snicker.  Believe me, there are not a lot of funny things happening on that floor.  We were seen in very prompt order for a blood draw and our appointment with Donna G., the stem cell nurse practitioner, Dr. Altman, and Dr. Mehta.  Steve's labs continue an upward march!  Today his hemoglobin was 9.9 (up from 8.4 yesterday plus one bag of red blood at Christ...."normally" he would only go up a point per bag, so this is another great sign!)  Platelets are at 39 today, up from 30 yesterday.  White cell count was hanging around the 1.7 mark, "lazy" as Dr. Mehta remarked, not a big deal.  He has really white teeth, just sayin.'

Steve's visual appearance changes in the last week were significant enough to illicit comments from his health providers. "You look GREAT!" was heard more than once.  He wore something other than Green Bay Packer sleep pants and an unmatched t-shirt today, which was refreshing for me to see, too.  It must be very rewarding for them to see their patients weather the storm and improve.  I'm sure many patients are not this fortunate.

A bit of wonderful news on the caregiver front, too.  We got to eliminate TWO meds from his daily regimen.  A first!!  Hooray for Steve!!  Hooray for Sue and less Pill Nazi talk!!  One of the drugs has huMONGous pills, 8 a day, so BUH-bye Amicar, and we also eliminated a high blood pressure pill that he started taking when his platelets were so dangerously low and his bp popped.  Again, more John Madden Xs.

I am going to start getting out here and there to refresh and recharge my mental health.  Had lunch yesterday with an old college friend and dinner with Megan in Naperville.  She needed her boots and coats to stay warm on the way to the pool for those 6 a.m. practices, brrrrrrr!!  Also hoping for some interviews.....I love the fall and the energy it brings.