Day 2

Dear friends and family,

I'm sitting in the family room at Rhoads writing this. I'm killing a few minutes while rush hour traffic dissipates__hopefully. Bob just went down for his line, so I was wrong about 3pm. First thing in the morning at HUP is 5pm. And that is the only negative thing I will write about today.

I will tell you that every staff member we have encountered so far at Rhoads has been wonderful...very kind and caring. We too have a Nurse Patty. She did not tell us her title, but she works w/ social services to coordinate insurance probs., support groups etc. She seems like she will be a big help. Bobs' primary nurse is a very sweet girl named Rachel. And I'm telling you, there are a lot of Doogie Howsers here. They must've lowered the minimum age requirement for medical licensure. These residents and interns look impossibly young. I'm sure I looked older than them when I was in high school. Bob did see our hem/onc today...Dr. Luger. She is going to San Francisco for a meeting, and thinks we will see her again on Monday. I was not here when she was in this am. When Bob told her about our experiences yesterday, she told him she had 4 pts. who did not get admitted as scheduled. This place is so huge that breakdowns in communication are commonplace, and that, as we see it is the biggest problem.

So, I'm going to close now. I'd like to get home at a decent hour. My niece Megan is staying with me, and my parents will be down this weekend, for which I am very grateful. I thank everyone too for their offers of a bed, and I am keeping them all tucked in my mind. Oh, Bobs' chemo is due to start tonight, but not really expected to kick in w/ big side effects(i.e. lowered counts) for another week or so. I will let you all know of course how it goes in the next few days.

Please keep us in your prayers.

All our love,
Bob and Mo