Gina is getting back to her tubers

Today the platelets still fell a little short -- 87,000 and climbing. It's a little frustrating that the platelets are taking so long to get to 100,000, but hopefully Wednesday they will reach the magic mark and I can go and get this treatment over with. On a good note, we took advantage of the delay to get the potatoes in this weekend.

My Irish lassie

You can't count your platelets before they are hatched

I went and had a blood test this morning. My platelet level was 54,000. Up from 47,000 last Friday but I need 100,000 to proceed to the hospital. It will be my last dose of chemotherapy and I'm itching to get it done. I'll go back Wednesday to see if I can check in to my room.

Home today

Steve's temperature went down, so they gave him the okay to go home, after having a top off of platelets. They never found out what caused the fevers; it could be from an accumulation of all the chemotherapy he's received.

He's feeling better. In about two weeks he'll be back in the hospital to accumulate more chemotherapy.
We're exhausted but it's blissfulness being  home.

Waiting patiently  for the final discharge signature to go home.  

Not much change from yesterday -- still in the hospital, still has a fever, still on antibiotics, still no white cells, still discouraged. On top of that he needed two units of red blood cells yesterday. If I didn't know better I'd think they were trying to kill him. On a kinder note, the doctors and nurses couldn't be kinder and more concerned. They are doing a great job. We are truly grateful to them for CURING Steve.

The poor guy has had a rough week. You know he feels bad when he says that he thinks it's better that he's in the hospital right now than at home. Really, he's scaring the shit out of me. But I know that this is just another rough patch that he'll soon be over. Sigh.

Steve felt a little better yesterday, asked me to bring him in some ribs. That's my boy! And we did some crossword puzzles. He knew the answers to the hard ones, as usual. Maybe he'll be up for a game of Scrabble today -- I'll see if I can take advantage of him again.

Also I have some exciting news for him: a big box of seed potatoes came in the mail yesterday that he ordered. From the looks of it, we're going to be eating a lot of potatoes next year. Steve tells me that this year I'll have to do the planting and digging of the potatoes -- it's in my blood, he says. (Talking about blood again.)

He really knows how to have a good time!

Spring Fevers

Steve has two kinds of spring fever -- including one that has landed him in the hospital. He went into Maine General in Augusta on Wednesday at 3 am and was in the emergency room until noon time when they finally found him a bed. Today, Thursday, he still has a fever. He's on antibiotics but not feeling too well. They don't know the cause of the fever and they say that over 50% of the time in leukemia patients like Steve they never do find out the source of the fever. None-the-less, they treat him like he has a raging infection, covering every known bug to man. Without any white blood cells to fight infections, they don't want to take any chances.
When he has the other kind of spring fever, we'll know he's getting better.