Day 7

Dear everyone,

Wow, I can hardly believe we are on day 7 already. Bob did, in fact start the chemo last night and so far, so good. He has what he tells me is "steroid euphoria" today. They premedicate the patients with zofran and decadron to prevent nausea and vomiting from the chemo, and Bob says 20mg of decadron is = 100mg of prednisone or 500mg of cortisone. So the bottom line is he is having ZERO knee pain today, and feeling pretty happy too. Steroids supposedly are a mood elevator also. He was up to 6 laps at a shot today, and moving faster than I've seen him in 5 yrs or so. He is eating everything they send him, and says "it's institution food.....whaddya' expect. He was eating an egg salad sandwich when I spoke to him at dinner time, after his celery soup and carrot-raisin salad. To all of which I would say "Blecchh" and be down in the gift shop w/ Deb buying chips and a coke. Here, all these years I thought Bob was such a gourmet, and took it as quite a compliment when he cleaned his plate when I cooked. Now I come to find out....the man will eat anything. Just kidding, I always knew Bob would eat anything.

We had a very busy visit today. We met the pastoral care minister, a very compassionate, friendly woman named Kava. We spent over an hour talking to her(or I should say occasionally, Bob, in his euphoric state, would let Kava and I get a word in edgewise). I get the feeling that she will be a wonderful resource for us. She is very easy to talk to, and listened intently to what we said. And I loved her b/c before she left, she told Bob he was a fascinating, caring man. I felt like she really got a sense of the wonderful person he is, which as nice as your drs. and nurses can be, until they actually sit down and converse with you, they don't really know you. It was also enlightening for me, b/c Bob told her stories from his Air Force days which I had never heard. So you must cut me a little slack, at this time in our lives, to crow about Bob, as he is one in a million, and I am one lucky girl to have snagged him.

We also met with our social worker, Tricia, who I also feel will be a great resource person for us. She is already looking into a few things for us, so we'll hear from her again soon.

On a medical level, Bobs' wbc's(white blood cells) were 1.9 today, hgb(hemoglobin) was 9.2 and his platelets were 61(thousand). That is a low WBC, but what the staff is concerned with as far as fighting infection is the absolute neutrophil count or ANC, and Bobs was over 1000 which is good. To fight infection it should be at least 500. Maybe that is why the open wound in his mouth looks so good today. I can barely see it compared to 2 days ago. All his mds were impressed by that today, and are glad they decided to go ahead w/ the chemo. So full steam ahead.

Bob is really looking forward tomorrow to his son Matthews' visit. Matt is a tekkie to the nth degree, and is bringing Bob a portable dvd player fully loaded with all the games these guys like to play. He lives in Memphis, and we haven't seen Matt since Sept., so it will be a wonderful gift for Bob, and I know it's really going to raise his spirits.

That's all the news that's fit to print today. We thank everyone for their blogs, cards, calls and support. You all are great, and we really appreciate it.

All our love,
Bob and Mo

PS, I have to clarify that Bob is not shaving his mustache off. I just meant in case it falls out from the chemo, that I had never seen him w/o it.