Many Happy Returns?

Just a quick one, owing to the fact that I'm completely pooped. But not for any particular reason, as the day’s medical stuff went well. Granted, that’s with air quotes around “well,” but you get the idea.

Kathy’s blood numbers were very good - her platelet count has tripled in a week, which is great. Other numbers are moving in the right direction.

So this more or less spells success for the “induction” phase of leukemia treatment when they throw everything at a patient to keep them (mostly) alive. Next will be the “consolidation” phase, in which they try to clean up any straggler cancer cells in her body. 

The process will continue to be challenging: she’ll check into the hospital a week from now and be given chemo for 3 days instead of the 5 days she got last time. Then, rather than spend 3 weeks in the hospital trying to recover, she’ll be sent HOME and try to recover while I monitor her vitals and generally have a panic-stricken look on my face. Twice a week, I’ll also take her to the hospital for blood tests which will tell us if she needs a blood transfusion, platelets, or other treatment she can't get at home (in other words, anything other than an ice bag). And every 4-6 weeks, we’ll repeat the whole cycle - over and over - until such time as we may be eligible for a stem cell transplant, which is not a non-risky procedure. 

In the interim, her immune system is somewhat less than half of what it would normally be, and all of her vaccinations and natural immunities have been wiped clean. She'll need to start from scratch after that transplant, and in the meanwhile obsessive hygiene will be the rule in the Jarlsberg household.

We continue to take one step at a time and the path we’re on - however challenging - is the only path that can potentially lead to a good long-term outcome. So all in all, this was a good day and one I wanted to share with you.

And I also want to share that with Halloween right around the corner, Kathy dressed in black for her appointment today - including a t-shirt which created the illusion of her having a skeletal rib cage enclosing a hot pink heart. A bold choice to wear to a crowded oncology clinic, but that's one of many reasons that I love her.