The schedule is set

We moved into a real apartment at the Pete Gross House.  The mailing address & phone are

525 Minor Ave N Apt 311

Seattle, WA  98109
206-262-9026

I could tell you about running along the ship canal, but naaaaah . . .  More importantly, we have a new schedule from the medical team.

Walked down to Pike Place market yesterday and saw these mongers throwing fish.  I actually held a video camera on the entire scene, which is something only tourists can do.  Stopped at the original Starbucks too.
 

Under the Aurora Bridge



Lunched with my family Sunday.  Had such a good time talking we didn't even get around to cranking up the karaoke machine.  Nope not a storyline there.  Oh, except a few family members had colds so I told them they couldn't come.  I can be an ogre like that to family.  And friends.  And not-so-friends.  No cooties.  I'm talking to you.

Heidi is still slightly neutropenic, but getting better.  Red and white cells are almost normal.  It will be much easier on me during our morning runs when they start killing her cells again.  Hopefully it will slow her down on the hills.  And does this place have hills!



Fred Hutchinson in the Foreground



Oh, we did get some bad news on one medical test.  Heidi had a negative result on her pregnancy test.  Yes, they test for everything.  Okay, technically not bad news, just negative news.

The medical team likes to ask about Heidi's exercise regimen.  Today, before delivering the new treatment schedule, we told them about runs along Lake Union and up to Volunteer Park.  Kyle, P.A., said her pulse was almost tachycardiac because it was up to 48 bpm.  That was because there was little time to rest after walking up the six flights of stairs.

Lake Union from an overpass over I-5

Decades ago, my bros and I spent many Saturday mornings at Volunteer Park killing time doing I can't remember what waiting for dad to finish work.  Heidi had never been there before and really enjoyed the gardens and views.

Before dinner, speaking of stairs, we stopped back at the clinic to pick up the latest antibiotic du jour.  I climbed stairs while Heidi waited in line at the pharmacy.  Previously I had told you we walked to the sixth floor.  While Heidi scored some drugs, I repeatedly climbed to the 7th story and beyond, but that's another story.

We have some information on the new donor.  Very little actually.  We know she matches 10 out of 10.  That's all.  She's a she; we know that too.  But nothing else.  Oh, one little clue that makes my mind wander a little.  Turns out she is donating bone marrow, not stem cells.  This is kinda interesting, and gives me more verbiage to intersperse around photos.

Looking West along Mercer



The donor's medical team is going to give her general anesthesia and drill four separate holes in the back of her pelvic bone.  Then they will extract 25 syringes of bone marrow from each hole.  That's right, 25 extractions from each hole!  This will produce ~900 ml of bone marrow from this procedure.  How many of you think that is not better than the new-fashioned way where they extract stem cells from an arm vein?  Heidi is reading over my shoulder and correcting me, saying it is not four holes, but a bunch.  Okay, Heidi, may I keep writing now?

Okay, but 900 ml?  For the metric-challenged, remember that a fifth of whiskey is 750 ml.  So they will extract more bone marrow from this poor lady than will fit in a whisky bottle.  Heidi's response to this is that she will have to send this person flowers some day.  If we ever find out who or where this person is.



If I may digress here, this raises some questions in my mind.  Now stay with me, Kris, for although this will now digress into a discuss on me, it will come back to Heidi in time.  Those of you who remember my blood donation experience and the vampire blood tech commenting on how their apheresis machine was modern but my experience elsewhere was with old-school equipment.  So now I see three levels of the technology universe:  modern apheresis machines, old-school machines, and places where people get drilled in the back a hundred times because they have no access to apheresis machines.  I asked the medical team what third-world country this donor was from and they claimed she was donating this way because of choice, not necessity.  I'm still picturing a very large-boned person (pelvic bone volume greater than a fifth of whiskey) from another country. 



Living on a houseboat is allegedly good for those who are sleepless



Ate dinner with Bob & Kari Saturday at a great restaurant, Sips, in Issaquah. On the way to Issaquah we drove across another floating bridge.  That's right, a bridge made of concrete that floats on the lake.  Amazing!  From the middle of Lake Washington it was so clear we could see from Mt Rainier to Mt Baker and all the Cascade mountains in between. Spent the whole time at dinner catching up on old times.  (To recap, whole time—>old times.)  After they went home, Kari read the blog and joined the bone marrow registry (she doesn't sleep much).  

Phyllis, our Tucson neighbor, also joined the registry some time ago, but I keep forgetting to mention it.  So I'll mention it now.  Oh, I just did.



As I said, the schedule is set.  But I can't tell you yet because I have more view photos to show.  I would have liked to show the flying fish video, but it wasn't that good.  Oh, darn, I'm out of photos.  Okay.

March 5-9:  chemotherapy

March 10: rest

March 11: radiation and bone marrow injection

Oh, found this one last photo.  The Fremont Bridge and the Aurora Bridge.  The Fremont bridge has a troll under it, but photos of it will have to wait for a future episode.