Ramblings

September 22, 2008

So, I heard you wondered if Teddy remains, ahem, not so cute. Perhaps you remember her inaugural photo?

What do you think? Some claim she has improved:

Well, at least she's still loving, quiet, and a willing buddy for Willie.

Do you remember that we had a long day last Thursday and didn't return from our transfusion trip to Houston until almost 1:30 in the morning? I slept in until 8:00, but looked forward to a fuller night sleep on Friday to catch up the sleep debt. Some time in the darkest of the night, Luke started barking. He delivers one slow, loud woof, and then has to stop a few beats and rest (remember he's a yellow lab going on sixteen years old). Woof, rest, rest, Woof, rest, Woof, rest, pause, rest Woof. I heard Erin croaking at him to "Pleeease beee quiiiiieeeet! . . to no avail. Walter also spoke sharply at him, which usually works. But not Friday night. I knew he had walked and done his doggie business only about 45 minutes before, so that his plea wasn't for someone to let him out. Finally, I did what only a doggie mother would do. I picked up my pillow and creaked my way downstairs to sleep with him so he wouldn't be scared and disoriented. We all rested easier after that, though perhaps on Saturday, we all moved more sluggishly and groggily than we would have without the night time disruption. Luke was the only one among us who could afford to catch up on his sleep the next day.


Uh oh. I think I got side tracked. This is Erin's home page. You probably want to know about her. On Saturday she resumed her project of unsorting the legoes. I think she is trying to re-create the rebel base on the ice planet Hoth.

Did I mention the pear crop had come in? If only it had arrived before Erin got constipated. We would have had a ready solution (note 1: there are twice as many left on the tree, even after Ike's visit; note 2: we judge the quality of our friendships by how many pears our friends are willing to take off our hands. Do you have yours yet?).

Last night Erin had requested that Walter fetch her from bed when I got home from my soccer match, so she could take credit for what awaited me on the table:


You can't actually tell from this version of the photo (click on the photo to see the actual details), but she hand painted the vase and gathered this bouquet from plants growing in our yard and Moo's yard next door.

Today's blood counts (have you read this far?):

HGB 10.1 (low, but a hell of a lot better than 6.2)
WBC 7000 (normal)
ANC 4700 (normal)
PLT 20,000 (ouch! don't hit her, trip her, or stick a knife in her)

Even though the platelets are officially transfusable. We're gonna let 'em ride, and see if her body can take care of this on its own this week. No P.E. and Ack! No soccer until there's a bit more glue to stop any bleeding. We'll delay the next round of chemo (even though it's "only" topo/cyclo) for a week (now tentatively scheduled to begin October 2) with a plan of three (week) days of outpatient chemo and two (weekend) days of in-patient chemo to minimize school absences.