Sat, 8.9 - Outside Day

While the weather in KC was a little dreery today, it was another positive day for Mom. We're considering a watch on Rhonda's parazzi since she seems to be the first to report everything. Maybe she's trying out for the National Enquirer. :) But per Rhonda's comment about receiving the picture today via 'family' text messages - she went outside.

I do want to make sure everyone on here is confident that the information you see here is the same information our family sees. I've continuously tried to provide accurate updates here so you know what's going on and there isn't any rhetoric swirling about. Mom has quite a network, and I know you would all love to see her if you could. She feels your thoughts every day, believe me. On several occasions she's made comments about people she would have never expected reaching out. On her behalf, thanks to everyone. It means more than you'll ever know.

Also, nothing has been lost in the mail so don't worry if you have sent a letter, card, or package previously to an address. The original address is working great as they love Mom and mail gets to her in a timely fashion. I have a feeling everyone's doing just fine given the sheer volume she receives on a daily basis!

Here are a couple of pics taken from 'Cathi's Day Out'.

Her comments were funny, 'it's just so weird to be out here.' You could tell she was very excited even though she was a little scared at first. The trip was only about an hour long as she still has to be on oxygen while outside. They'd told us we had 2 hours per tank, but I noticed when we got back inside that the tank was barely 1/4 full. So they may overestimate a bit on those things. That's also why you see her with the blanket though. The oxygen makes her cold when that's blowing on her face combined with the unseasonably cool 70 degree weather.

Most of the day was spent in the room doing normal stuff - eating, chatting, and resting. She's ever so happy to be stopping the steroids since it allows for more rest. On that note, we watched the Olympics and were preparing to watch Michael Phelps win his first Gold of this games and she ended up falling asleep only to wake up right after the race. Her comment was, 'I missed it.' That's ok, Mom. If you needed to sleep, we're glad you missed it! They also discontinued another antibiotic today. Her comment regarding that particular one was, 'oh good - that's one that you guys wake me up in the middle of the night for.'

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the new doctor, Dr. Aljitawi (All-juh-tah-wee). In true Mom form, she likes to learn who all of her helpers are and he was no exception. He's a Jordanian-born doctor who studied here at KU, went to Stanford for a fellowship, and now has returned to bring the Bone Marrow Transplant unit doctor staff-level to 4: McGurk (head), Ganguly, Abyankar, and Aljitawi.

Now that's not even the reason I need to mention him. Janice and I got a chuckle after he left (and later Mom and I did) because he appeared to have a hickey on his neck! That was pretty funny, and man was I tempted to ask him about it. I'll leave that to Mom b/c I'm sure she can come up witih some funny way to bring it up.

Her WBCs are up to 4.1 so we're still trending up! I want to forewarn everyone that # could stabilize or potentially decrease in the next few days. They are transitioning down the Neupogen so Sarah, the Nurse Practitioner, said it's very normal to see that. So not a bad thing if the numbers decrease. We just need her body to continue to produce WBCs itself now.

That's it for today. Today was a good day.