Lots going on today

A little excitement to stir the otherwise monotonous tone around here. Although, not all good things, but all are certain on the path to the curative.
The doctors are concerned that I many have a secondary infection somewhere in my body which may be causing the recent fever spikes. So we’re going to a contrasted CT [...]

Voodoo at the dog park today

Voodoo at the dog park today
Originally uploaded by sdpalmer.

Allison, the dog sitter, took Voodoo to the dog park today. Apparently, she enjoyed herself. Got a good report from Allison, and even learned that it *is* possible to train Voodoo not to sleep on my bed or lounge on the couch. I can’t wait to try [...]

Fevers and favors

Yesterday and the day before, as well today, I’m running some mild-grade fevers. Nothing too upsetting, completely controllable and somewhat expected. But it’s reminding me just how fragile my body is right now. On top of that, this is such a period of uncertainty while we wait to see if we killed enough Leukemia cells [...]

Day 9 10 (ooops)

(Actually, I’ve been in hospital 13 days now; it’s day 9 10 since they started the chemo)
So I am officially off the chemo now for a few days. We wait and watch my blood counts to make sure the chemo does its job. Statistically, the prognosis is looking good. I know that’s a weird of [...]

18 minutes! Or more frequently.

On average, every 18 minutes from the time I get up, until the time they take my bloods in the evening, there is another person from the hospital coming in out of the room. 18 minutes! That is the average. The rest of the stats bear out like this: in the earlier/later hours I will [...]

Why no postings today?

I’m having a lazy day. All I really wanted to do yesterday was rest, but it felt like every few moments someone else was coming in here for something else. So I wanted a lazy day today. In fact, I got platlets this morning and was given two Benedryl tablets since I had some hive [...]

Day 8

Well, I’m on my last bag of chemo right now. After this, we watch for infections and monitor my blood production. Early next week, we do another bone marrow biopsy to confirm that we’ve killed off the leukemia, and my doctor has said, statistically, that we’re doing really really well. This is very encouraging. But [...]

Voodoo kisses

voodoo kisses

Originally uploaded by this is emily.

This is another favorite shot of Voodoo and me from this summer. Isn’t she beautiful?

So where’s Voodoo?

voodoo in the garden

Originally uploaded by this is emily.

So at first my mom was taking care of me and running home to take care of Voodoo. We got a dog sitter – highly recommended – here in Philadelphia so Voodoo’s taking a little bit of a vacation. At first, I was worried that she wouldn’t [...]

Lunch!

I was such a bad/good boy today. My friend Michael came up to see me Sunday and on Monday he went to Ted’s Bison Steakhouse to wrestle up some good bison burgers for us … fries and all. YUM! The taste of hospital food is making me really ill. Unfortunately, this diet doesn’t allow for [...]

Tired and restless

I’m having trouble sleeping tonight. Little aches and pains – nothing major, nothing life-threatening or earth shattering, just a little uncomfortable. I’m also tired of taking pills after pills after pills – I’ve never been a druggie and I just can’t get used to the number and type of pills I have to take every [...]

I am craving Hollandaise sauce

I don’t know why, but I woke up after dreaming about making Hollandaise sauce. Little pats of butter being stirred into egg yolks. Lemon. Poached eggs. Smoked salmon. Lightly toasted engligh muffin. Hot, roasted, spiced potatoes. Breakfast of champions. Fresh squeezed orange juice mixed with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. A hot coffee. I don’t know [...]

Day 5 update

So my white blood cell count is going down. This is a good thing as it means the chemo is working and getting rid of the leukemia. My blood count is down and I’m going to be getting a couple of pints of blood today. This is probably helping to account to for my general [...]

Got my camera in my hospital room

Now there are no more excuses for bad photos.

Me and Angela

Me and Angela
Originally uploaded by sdpalmer.

Punim, and chaverim, for the centuries!

Me (bald) and Chuck

Me (bald) and Chuck
Originally uploaded by sdpalmer.

Yep – Chuck came back with Angela to visit and I was so happy. So unexpected. Actually, my phone was backed up with too many text messages, so I was very happy and surprised to see them.

Get a room!

Get a room!
Originally uploaded by sdpalmer.

It was good having Lenny down here – I think it makes mom very happy. In fact, I know it does. And I love catching gushy photos of them like this.

Day 3-4

I now have a score-card in my room which tracks various things, days, bad cells, good cells, platletts. It’s a good thing to have to track progress. Basically, I still have another 3 weeks to go here, but here’s the score today: Looks like I’ll be neededing blood platletts tomorrow but otherwise doing ok. What [...]

Chemo, day 2 update

Been feeling very groggy today mostly due to nausea and associated drugs to keep it away. So I’ve slept most of the day. Had a few visitors with great stuff: Mary and her son’s colorful dinosaur, a rabbi with some Manischevitz grape juice, UPS came by today with big posters from work (thank you everyone), [...]

Chemo, Day 2

Started out pretty much as day 1, except I had a visitor during the injection of the Daunarubicin – a colleague from work (thanks, Peter!). I have to tell you, they really have this down pat – I feel a slight discomfort this morning, a little nauseau, but I’m going to try to find a [...]