Being Perky

Cathi's cousin Gail here. No, I'm not perky and it's not a word I would use to describe Cathi most of the time. But, today she has perked up. She woke up this morning with a little tiny bounce in her step and that great big smile we know and love.

Last night we implemented the policy of "take a Tylenol if your fever is going up to see if it goes down" and, indeed it worked! It's a fabulous policy allowing a decent amount of sleep and no calls or visits to the med center.

This morning, after a breakfast of a huge bowl of pills that we have learned can be split and mashed into tiny bits - making them ever so slightly easier to get down - we dashed off to the clinic where Cathi finished up the last of the IV antibiotics and another round of potassium. The potassium takes . . . f o r e v e r . . . to drip through - it cannot be delivered quickly due to some medical reason that I am not grasping but know that if it could be delivered faster we would demand it. It was almost 4 pm by the time we got Cathi home.

The good news: WBC counts continue to rise. This is absolutely great since it shows that her bone marrow is working. The other counts that need to be higher are slowly rising as well. It doesn't always look like a lot from one day to the next, but when it's charted out it is obvious that Cathi is on an upward trend! It will be a slow climb, but it is most definitely climbing.

Cathi's not scheduled for any time in the clinic beds over the weekend. She has only a quick stop at the clinic on Saturday and Sunday for lab work to make sure that numbers are where they need to be. That means more time at home working on getting perkier. (Hopefully she will find that as amusing as I do. Seeing her laugh is such a treat.)

Love you so much my dear cousin!