T+38: My hip isn’t sore (yet).

This morning’s bone marrow biopsy was scheduled for 10:30, and we were told to arrive at 10:00. We did. Someone told us when we started all this that there are two kinds of time: real time that you read on a clock, and hospital time. Today was all on hospital time. Very frustrating when they keep the real time clocks in plain sight. I got called in to the room around 10:30, and the nurse informed me that the docs were running about 45 minutes behind already. Fortunately, Jim got up early and made the trip down here, so we had a 4th for euchre. Which is not to say that Jim’s only value is being our 4th player. Quite the contrary, in fact. We had a good discussion about things when we finally made it back to the house. But I’m getting way ahead of myself.

While we waited for the doc to do the bone marrow biopsy, the nurse drew blood for the usual labs and also for the subsets (donor cell tests). Here are today’s stats:

WBC: 1.0
ANC: 0.52
HCT: 26.4
PLTS: 109k

Given the low WBC and ANC, I got another Neupogen shot to boost production. Finally, the doc was ready for the bone marrow biopsy around 1:00. We had to abandon the card game. Current score is 9 games to 8, and Grandpa and I are leading the team of Grandma and whoever the 4th player happens to be on a given day.

In terms of technique and physical discomfort, I have to say that today’s doc was the best I’ve had when it comes to bone marrow biopsies, despite having to “try it again” when the first sample didn’t produce enough. The worst part was the lidocaine shot. I didn’t even feel pain when he had to “rock [the needle] back and forth a little bit”, even though my hips were swaying back and forth with the needle. I asked Jim later, and he said it looked like more than a little bit of rocking.

I know this isn’t written in order chronologically, but the lab results actually came back after the biopsy. So, it was already 1:30 when we found out that the HCT was low, and the nurse said I needed to get 2 units of blood. Here’s how that works: it takes at least an hour from the time the blood is ordered before it arrives in the ITA. Each unit takes a minimum of 1.5 hours to drip in through the central venous catheter. Add it all up and you get a minimum of 4 more hours in the ITA, assuming everything goes perfectly. Since the day was already running on hospital time, I chose not to receive the blood today. Instead I’ll go in tomorrow morning and get it.

To wrap up the afternoon, I also had a pleasant visit from Judy Carlson, who was in the area with Wayne (her husband) and stopped by for a few minutes. I gave her an update and we chatted about a few other things going on, then she prayed with me for a few minutes. Judy–thanks for the visit, and your powerful prayers!

Back to my conversation with Jim. We talked about how I’m doing spiritually with all the changes that have happened in the past 10 days. Right now, here are our main prayer requests:

1. That Jen and I can adjust to being apart. She went back to work last week, and is planning to come here on weekends when she’s not working. It’s one thing to go away for a guys or gals weekend; it’s another to be apart 5 days a week for a couple months.

2. That the test results from today would show no disease in my bone marrow, and the donor’s T-cells at the expected amount for this time. Given what we’ve been told, this is highly unlikely (some would say impossible) from a medical perspective. We’re asking God for a miracle that can have no other explanation.

Here are a few praises from the past few days:

1. Jen was home in Sacramento for the weekend, and was able to go to church for the first time in about 2 months. It was great for her to be back in that setting and see everyone’s familiar faces. She even got up in front of everyone and gave an update! I’m told she was a little surprised at the request to do so, but did an outstanding job. A+ and two gold stars for my shmoopy! After that, Eric (our pastor) prayed “while a bunch of us gathered around her and held her tight”, to quote Rose.

2. On Wednesday last week in the ITA, I picked out my chair as usual, looking for an opening away from most other patients. Does that say anything about my personality? Anyway, I overheard the guy next to me talking to another patient about their respective cancers and treatments, and they both have CLL. After they finished talking, I had an out-of-body experience where I pulled back the curtain and introduced myself to the guy. Since we’ve been introduced, his name is Jeff. I told him my story and he reciprocated. It turns out that he’s on the same protocol as I am. As we talked, I got the impression that he might be a Christian, and I was right. He was very encouraging to me as I told him about the discouraging news from the previous Friday. He was still there when Dr. Lowsky came and gave us the good news from the test results. After the doc left, Jeff had a smile on his face that was just as big as any of ours. He was again very positive and encouraging, and said he’d be praying for us. The whole interaction left us feeling like God was all over it that day.

3. On Sunday (yesterday), I had enough energy to walk around for about an hour and a half at a car show on the Stanford campus with Grandpa. There were classic American cars (not enough, in our opinion) and a lot of foreign cars (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Porsche, etc.). I must say that the new Murcielago is gorgeous. Not the one pictured below, though. The new Audi R8 is nice, too, if you’re into that sort of thing, which I am. Anyway, the point here is that my energy level is increasing, though it fluctuates depending on my activity level.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…what’s the answer to Friday’s contest? Several of you guessed correctly that the tree is an oak, but Amy van Riessen (#16) was first to provide the correct species…Quercus lobata. Tim (#19) also answered with the right species. Now for the second question…what’s wrong in the picture? Obviously, there are three metal poles holding up some the tree’s limbs. Since there’s a playground under the tree, there’s a concern for safety. If a limb were to break while the kiddos were playing, that would be bad. A lot of you correctly pointed this out. Some of you (ahem, Dad) thought that the tree should have been cut down instead of creating the situation that exists. Here’s my answer: this species is very long-lived. Given this tree’s size (trunk is easily 3 feet in diameter, though I didn’t have my dbh tape to measure correctly), I think it’s safe to say that it’s at least 150 years old. Remember that this a school, and there’s plenty of room to put the playground somewhere else. I don’t know when the school or playground was built, but this is the kind of thing that should be considered in planning to build. As one commenter pointed out, trees “provide wonderful shade for me and glorious texture to the landscape”. So, I’ll say that Tim wins for correct species and identifying the potential hazard. Eric (#21) also wins for the effort in finding a species indigenous to this area and his love of dairy. MvdP gets a pat on the back for the humor. Congratulations to everyone!

Finally, I now realize I should change the title of this post. I started writing almost 5 hours ago, but stopped to talk with Judy and eat dinner. Now my hip hurts, so I quit.