Day 13 Admission Day 8 Chemo

Hi everyone,

Well, Bob will have his 7th and last bag of chemo(cytarabine) taken down tonight. His IVF's(IV fluids) were stopped this am, b/c he is taking in a lot of fluids by mouth, and he's no longer retaining fluid, w/ his weight having dropped to his admission weight. So all the ports on his IV line will be capped, and he'll be able to take a shower tomorrow. His whole right shoulder area will be wrapped in saran wrap, but at least he'll get to stand half of his body under the hot steamy water for a few minutes. He may be needing blood and platelets again tomorrow, but all his counts were in a holding pattern today. He still remains afebrile, w/o any signs of infection brewing yet. He's still eating well, but he wants to correct the impression that he likes the HUP food. He says he DOES NOT LIKE IT, but it is institutional food, and he doesn't expect it to be good. He feels that it's edible, and as Istari6(AKA brother Bill) says, he ate the liver that Mom, Catherine put in front of him, didn't he? I think what is going to get to Bob eventually, is that there is only a one week cycle of meals, i.e. ,every Sunday is beef tips, every Friday is fish, every Tuesday is spaghetti etc. Now, while he continues to refuse entrees from home, he has become amenable to desserts. He enjoyed the ricotta pie from Bev over the weekend(I thought it was fabulous, and sorry Santa, but there's no recipe...it's from a bakery), dug into homemade peach pie from our friend Yvonne today(also fabulous, attested to by Mo and Deb) and continues to enjoy pizelles(courtesy of cuz Candy) and milk as an afternoon snack. Sheesh, it's a good thing he's still going strong in the lap department...18 total per day, doing 6 at a time. So, overall I'd have to say that Bob is doing great, and all our mds' agree.

Now, I just want to throw some things out there that have been swimming around in my head, and to answer some questions that have come up in your posts. I miss the give and take that we FODs(friends of Deb) had going in Debs' blog, though it would be to hard to address everyones comments every night. First, to Eileen, this is absolutely a pecker-able zone. I should explain...when Deb(my friend who also has AML) was getting ready to be admitted to HUP for her induction chemo, our Scottish friend Nancy told her to keep her pecker up. So there was quite a lot of pecker chat on Debs' blog, and curiosity about whether Deb was actually in possession of a pecker(I'm glad my mother doen't have a computer),when Nancy got in touch again and told us definitively that a pecker was a beak or nose. Phew!!!

Secondly, Mary Day, the ice cream in Bob's mini-frig is unfortunately Jack and Jill provided by HUP, but Bob is even eating that. And no he has not lost any mustache hairs yet, so there are no moles peeking out at me. He does think however, that some of the hair on his head has fallen out...and he can tell this by???

To Santa, Matt didn't have time to pick up a DVD player for Bob before he came up, so Bob wasn't able to watch Bubba Ho-Tep which Sammy brought over. But he was reading Sammys' play when I left this afternoon, so more on that later.

Now, I'm gonna make all the other FODs who are joining us on this blog jealous, b/c I saw pictures today of Emma Grace Khouri, who is the cutest, sweetest little peanut ever. Jess and Walid, she is just adorable, and Mr.C has an absolute, devilish twinkle in those big blue eyes of his. God Bless you all.

I also wanted to say hi to my buds at MSC where I work, at least where I hope I still work. I miss you guys so much. I know you're w/ us all the time. Thanks for the cards, calls, blogs. I'm hoping to get in sometime soon if Bob continues to do well. Is this a CJC Friday coming up? Let me know.

Lastly to kmm darlin', Bob also loves cosmos, so we could continue along that vein. He also loves a dry, tangueray martini, and a good wine(red or white). Maybe I can talk him into a special guest posting from the family room PC at Rhoads, and he could chat about his favorite poison.

I guess by now most of the FODs will have read Joes' blog, so you know Deb is in Rhoads 6, for her 2nd round of consolidation chemo. I hitched a ride to HUP w/ Deb and Joe today. I think Deb was really expecting to come home after seeing her MD, but her platelet count rose dramatically to 180,000, so she was admitted. It will be nice to have their company even if it's only for 6 days. Now I know and so does Bob especially, what Deb meant when she used to say I wish Dr. Bob was here w/ me now. I will not be going down tomorrow, since I am finally going to get the 5000 mile check on our car, and I have to travel to Doylestown for that. But I do feel better, knowing Deb will check in on and visit w/ Bob tomorrow.

Holy cow, have I been chatty tonight? I think I'm just so pleased that Bob is doing so well w/ the chemo so far. We are not however, out of the woods, as Dr. Porter is so fond of saying. Please keep the prayers and good vibes going. As I said before, Bob just loves reading the blogs too, so keep 'em comin' please.

With love and grateful appreciation for all your support,
Bob and Mo