Movin' on up!

I just found out my blood test results. Apparently, when I requested that my results be sent STAT on Friday, they thought that meant Some Time, Any Time. Anyway, Melissa thought I was looking less pale this weekend, which is a good thing.

So, white blood cells are at 35.7, hemoglobin is back up to 10.0, and platelets are at 171 (more knife fighting). I have a request in to get more Aranesp this week, as 10.0 is still 4-5 pints low. Still, it's 20-ish% higher than Tuesday, so I am out of the transfusion concern range.

I have discovered another reason to have chemo. Note: I DO NOT ACTUALLY RECOMMEND GETTING CHEMOTHERAPY UNLESS YOU NEED IT. DO NOT SUE ME IF YOU TAKE THESE REASONS AS VIABLE MEDICAL ADVICE. I WILL INVOKE THE "PLAINTIFF IS AN IDIOT" DEFENSE. Anyway, the other reason chemo is a good thing (ho ho! a joke!) is that a large group of guys came over on Saturday afternoon and did a whole heap of gardening work. Why? I know, you think they are doing it for blog credits. Who wouldn't want to have the high honor of being mentioned in my blog? Turns out, not the case. These guys are all from our church, and simply thought it would a blessing to a friend. Well, I was blessed! Honestly, I don't even know all of their names. But they pulled weeds, spread mulch, trimmed bushes, mowed, edged, and generally made the yard look amazing! Many thanks to Jon, John, Kurt, Brad, Zzzzac (it's more fun to say it that way), Mike, Steve (who came over and shoveled a yard of mulch by himself, as well as doing some weeding), and the rest of you whom I can't remember right now.

One less pleasant side effect: by brain is dealing with low oxygen. It is really weird. There are two ways that I've seen it manifested. First, I have brain reboots. I'll be talking about something, and then completely forget what I was talking about. On Friday morning, I was on a teleconference, and was three words into making a comment, and had a reboot. I tried to fake my way through it. Sadly, someone called me on it, and asked me to explain further. I had to confess I had completely forgotten what we were talking about. I had a recovery, but it was a little embarrassing. Secondly, I use the wrong words. I'll be talking, and the wrong word comes out. Very bizarre. Happily, I know it is only temporary. Sadly, I will no longer have an excuse for seeming to be a blithering idiot if it occurs after June. Actually, I be a sleep-deprived father of two, so that should buy some blither leeway. Now that I think about it, what does it mean if I blither. No one ever talks about having blithered in the past. Just looked it up...it means to babble, to talk foolishly. I guess I do blither right now.

Melissa and I went to a birthday celebration at Cheesecake Factory on Saturday at the mall. I've never seen traffic like I did that day. Of course, it made sense, being March 4 and all (???). It took about 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot, and they had attendants directing traffic. We will avoid malls on weekends for the rest of time. Hudson was a champ at the restaurant. We had to wait for a while for a table, and he was totally fine sitting in his stroller, and pointing at cars and the moon and people and hooting with excitement. When he gets really excited, he does this screech that I think sounds like I would expect a pterodactyl to sound. We've also discovered Hudson is a very expressive child. Some toddlers sit quietly in crowds. Not Hudson. He points, smiles, waves, screeches, and interacts with anyone and anything around him.

Anyway, apart from the possible Aranesp shot, we have the PET scan on March 15, and results on March 20. Many thanks for the ongoing prayers.