September 27, 2008

Dorothy McLaughlin came to visit me today today, I can't believe she braved the traffic. She made decent time getting up here after the game started but she left after 3:30ish when the game was over so I have no idea how long it took her to get home. She took me to Wendy's in the basement for lunch, it was good but I am going to have to cut back on all the grease it is tearing me up. We had a great visit I have not seen her in years & she looks great & I could not believe how much weight she had lost. She looks good! We talked about the kids, she brought her camera & I cannot get over how much they have all grown, Gabe & Zack are about a year apart & Zack is so much bigger than Gabe. Justine is more beautiful then ever but she always has been a pretty girl & her other 2 boys Jordan & Jared are getting all grown up quick. Between her 4 kids & mine it was always a major adventure & involved pizza or a cookout when we had them all together. When I get out of the hospital we will have to do it again.

I am down to 164 pounds today & very gassy :( I just want the misery to hurry up & be done they will give me some Maalox or something I am sure in a little bit) I try to put what is going on with my labs for my sister and all the other medical folks following me, I know it is all Greek to most of you so I listed my labs for today & what the ranges are for a normal person that does not have cancer. If I have any other labs that are below normal in the future that I did not post the ranges I will list their normal ranges for you there are about 17 different areas they test my blood for each day. I only post the problem areas that the Doc's are watching.

So for today my labs were as follows; Hemoglobin dropped from 10.9 to 10.1 (Normal ranges are 11.7 to 15.5) so this is not to bad.
Hct dropped from 31.3 to 28.9 (Normal Ranges are 35 to 45).
White Blood Cell count dropped from .9 to .7 (Normal ranges are 4.5 to 11.0).
Platelet count after the last infusion went to 14 but has now dropped down to 6 again (Normal ranges are 150-500)
Sodium Level went up to 133 from 132 (Normal ranges are between 136 to 145).
Creatinine dropped from .65 to .55 (Normal ranges are from .6to1.1).
Calcium dropped from 9.2 to 8.4 (Normal Ranges are from 8.6 to 10).

I am definitely keeping up & possibly increasing my medical knowledge during this stay. Today is also the 11th day since they did the first Chemo treatment. On day 14 I get another Bone Marrow Biopsy to see if the Chemo worked & put the Leukemia in remission. I still have not hit my Nader & I am nervous about this for some reason. I did start getting the mouth sores today, they are lovely. I get this magic mouth wash that is awful tasting but is chalked full of Ladocaine so for a good half hour I can't feel my teeth, tongue or lips. 4 times a day I get to drool on my self & I feel like my mouth is swollen like a baboon until it wears off. On the positive note, my hair is still in this morning.

Oh yeah and the docs put me on Norethindrone, a female hormone they are using it to stop my periods so I do not bleed to death. My gynecologist was wrong in June it was not normal for me to be bleeding like a stuck hog so if you have that problem get a second opinion before you consider the Novasure procedure. I did not have it done & I am so glad because it would have been unnecessary & I may have bleed to death during the procedure with my condition. Now let me tell you no period is a good thing for most women but this medicine has a nasty side effect it gives you acne real bad not pimples, acne so I feel like I look like a leper right now & there is nothing I can do about it.

Dad & Elaine are supposed to come see me today & I think the whole Missing Link Motorcycle Club may be coming up as well. If they do I am going to try to sneak a ride around the parking lot... we'll see. I am really looking forward to seeing everybody.

I took a nap from 3:30 to 7:00pm, that is a first. It is sooooo good to be able to sleep for more than an hour! Thank you Betsey again. I put a lot of updates on the Missing Link website yesterday so check it out if you have time I added picture slide shows to Circleville & Northwest's pages & Columbus sent me their schedule & a flyer so I updated that info & I added Wojo & Alan along with some other pictures in the London slide show.

At home there was major drama last night with homecoming, I do not have the pictures yet but will post them all when I get them. They would not let the kids in to the dance that go to London Academy. After a very heated argument with the parents, I can't believe Marcus kept his cool, I guess the cops were a foot behind him the whole time & the High School Principal refusing to budge & threw the kids out in front of all the other students. The London Academy principal came up after talking with the School District Superintendent & the kid's got to go in & that is what was important. Needless to say there is going to be a ton of parents that are going to the next school board meeting. It all ended good for the kids but unfortunately the Principal embarrassed them all in front of their peers & that is unacceptable.

Enough negativity I am going to have a good day tomorrow!