Neither rain nor snow.....

Tuesday morning Sally picked me up at 6:15 so we could make my 7am clinic appointment despite the snow and dicey roads. We tooled along carefully and arrived safely at 7. But none of the staff made it until after 7:30. One tech told me she didn't even realize it was bad out and turned on the TV to check the temperature before she left and discovered her kids were out of school. So I count among my blessings not having to worry about school closings any more.

I saw Dr. Male, the fellowship doctor. She didn't remember me. I think that's a good thing because I think it's because I'm doing so well nobody is worrying about me. She performed the "assessment" which is a series of questions about side effects then listening to my lungs and heart, checking for swelling or tenderness anywhere. She also reported that the CT Scan of my lungs last week showed more improvement. She explained that lungs take a very long time to heal completely. And that you always feel much better than your lungs look.

Dr. Abhyankar came in to tell me that my WBC count was down to 1.6, but he didn't know what the neutrophils were yet. I said I hope it's good because Sally and I want to go eat lunch in a restaurant after this. He laughed and said "Take me with you." Ha ha. Not what I was expecting. He's a bit shy, but I'm finding he has a great sense of humor.

Last week I told him I had reread my blog from the summer and that we had a mutual friend, Mitch Hamburg. Until then I had not read Mitch's post on the blog. So I told a couple of scout stories about Mitch, in particular the one about the turkey feather at summer camp. We (Dr. A and I) had some good laughs over that.

At the end of the day, the ANC (absolute neutrophil) was 70%. The Hg was up a little bit. Platelets were up. He said all this bobbling around is good. It means there is action in my bone marrow as Walt's cells try to beat out the last of the Cathi cells.

So good news but of course, no eating in a restaurant. I can have guests though so give me a call if you have any time and interest in this very cold, very busy, holiday season. Things are not coming together for the move back home this week so I guess it's delayed a while longer.

And a final bit of good news, I took the last Prograf pill this morning. Prograf is an anti-rejection drug that I have been taking since the week before the transplant. I was excited about having fewer pills to take, but yesterday I received a prescription for an another antibiotic because my WBC is so low. It is 3 pills twice a day. So get rid of one, gain three. I think I'll be happy they are three small pills. And that I can eat some takeout food. And that I can have guests.

Cathi