Some Positive Signs

November 21, 2008

Sometimes, when you have swam against the tide for long enough, you find yourself in a tide pool and it takes a minute or more for you to stop swimming with all your might and enjoy the respite that the absence of a strong head current gives you.

After last week's scans, which threw us immediately into five days of chemo followed by an additional ten days of radiation, all we could do was follow one stroke with another, hoping to make some headway or at least not to fall victim of the waves and be washed away. Funnily, Team Buenger has all gotten stronger as the week has gone by. Erin has felt better and incrementally more energetic, and Walter and I have chipped away at our tasks so that we no longer feel like we are drowning. Erin's counts on Thursday morning looked robust:

HGB 12.2 (nothing like borrowing a bag and a half of blood from someone else to pep you up)
WBC 6700 (normal)
ANC 6200 (normal)
PLT 345,000 (normal)

Erin and I showed up before the doors opened at radiation this morning (6:50), got the third zap, and were in the car heading out of the parking garage by 7:25. We drove against the traffic most of the way home, getting her to school by early in second period! Yesterday she missed the last two periods to make the late afternoon appointment, so this late/early schedule may optimize school attendance.

Last night we worked on the Thanksgiving menu and finished up a project on England for Tech Apps. She is still pretty far behind in some classes, but like with everything else these days, making a little headway (Do you hear that, you rotten tumor? We are making headway on all fronts, so you'd just better give it up).

The big news is that the van to Austin left with six Jan Long middle schoolers aboard this afternoon at 2:30 to attend the Texas State Middle School Student Council Convention, and Erin was one of them. Even bigger news, I wasn't in the group, nor am I following along later. She said she felt well enough to go without either of her parents. I SO hope that's true.

What will I do instead? I haven't decided. I have twenty-five folks scheduled for Thanksgiving dinner, so I could clean house. OR I could spend the evening with Walter, chilling, watching the sunset, and enjoying a libation or two. If I had time, I would poll you to help me make the decision, but since I don't I guess I'll flip a (two-headed) coin.