"We will tell you when." S. Ganguly

Day before Thanksgiving. The house smells of garlic from the preparations. The garlic has completely overtaken the apple pie aroma from this morning. Dad and I took the dogs for a short walk because the weather is so beautiful. I am looking forward to eating a big dinner tomorrow. Since I no longer have to consume 100g of protein my calorie intake dropped 600-800 calories a day. I lost one pound in 4 days, and tomorrow I shall make up for it with second helpings of pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and gravy.

Yesterday was a very long day at the clinic. I had a sonogram of my liver, that I had expected to be a CT Scan. "Doesn't matter, you shouldn't have eaten," snapped the technician. (I suspect she had missed her own breakfast.) She showed me the black spot on the monitor that represented the peanut butter toast I had consumed on the road to the clinic.

Nothing prepared me for her disposition or the sonogram. Too bad. boo hoo. She must have managed to get some pictures despite the breakfast because Ganguly had a report.

Ganguly arrives in my room and reports "You have gallstones. The gallbladder is going to have to come out. But not now. You will have to decide that later." A welcome respite since I've never had a single symptom of gallstones and surely have enough going on in my body at the moment.

Next he says "Your liver is inflamed. I am looking at your medications. I want to take you off of everything unnecessary. Like Effexor. You do not look like a depressed person to me! You do not need Effexor!" I laughed back at him that I'm taking it for hot flashes not depression. He replies in his own crisp accent "you will not have those now that you have your brother's blood! ha ha ha ha" Then quickly tells my mother "that is just a joke...."

We continued the discussion of medication. I was willing to give up the Effexor, the sleeping pill, the antibiotic. I was game for all of it. Then he says "I just have to see your blood results." DOH I think to myself. I told him I was a new grandmother. "Congratulaaaations!" then the crisp "We will tell you when you can be around the baby."

When he came back with the blood results he started with "Can you have a bone marrow today? Your white count is down for some reason. I want to check how much is you and how much is your brother." I told him yes and reminded him that Wendy had just drawn blood to check that. "Not the same. That is the blood. We are going right to the factory."

On the other hand the liver was good. "Don't change a thing" he trumpeted. "I will write your prescriptions." So happily, the Effexor is still working its magic on the hot flashes.

So I had a bone marrow biopsy. Mary Burkhardt performed the procedure and she gets high marks for painless, during and after. Of course Jenny was as always, the nurse in the room and sorry to report to you Walt that she would now like to meet Mark! It was supposed to be just an aspiration but the white cell count apparently skewed the smears so she went back in and got the bone chip.

Finally I left the clinic. The first appointment was at 8am and we did not get home until about 3pm. By then I was seriously hungry and it had been hours since I ate. I considered reporting this to the sonogram tech but decided to leave well enough alone.

The dropping white cell count means I must be careful of visitors. sigh. I return to the clinic on Monday and I am optimistic that the white count will be up.

Meanwhile I'm making my list of questions for the next visit. I'm going to rephrase them, to-wit:

1. How long til I must stop driving?
2. When should I not fly?
3. What is the time frame for avoiding babies and children?
4. How much less wine should I drink with my dinner?