Halloween Spectacular Edition

Here's to hoping Heidi's hair grows back pink

It's Day 27 if anyone's counting (I'm not).  Heidi's white count is up to 0.5.  She now has a non-zero ANC of 10.  Yay because it's non-zero; damn because it's still below 500.  It's all up to her bone marrow at this point.  It's a good sign that her counts were at zero for so long—it means the chemo drugs did their job.  The way they are creeping up slowly isn't good or bad.  According to the docs the rise in blood counts is just unpredictable. 

Our latest plan to get outta this joint is to get evicted for being bad residents.  Halloween provides the perfect backdrop for dressing and acting goofy.  For me, goofy is a synonym for annoying. 


All Halloween'd out





We started by putting on wigs—Heidi looking stunning in pink and I getting many comments in blue.  Then we went on a walk up and down the hall.  At first I was planning to just tie balloon animals out of rubber gloves (see photo above) and hand them out to the nurses working in the hall during our walk.  But then, thinking that wasn't quite annoying enough to get evicted, I put two balloon gloves inside my shirt.  The wig made me do it.

I've gotten kicked out of many
places for much less than this



I did manage to hand out 5 balloon animals during our 30 minute walk.  A chicken, a turkey, a punk with a mohawk, a hand with elephantiasis, and a scary jack-o-lantern.  Chuckles the clown ain't got nothin' on me.



The coup de grace for getting evicted was to borrow bunny ears for a provocative photo.  Heidi thought this extra step wasn't necessary.  I call it attitude enhancement.





A visit to my bald girlfriend living in a downtown penthouse

GI Jane after changing out of Camoflauge

Now that I have a bald girlfriend living downtown in a fancy penthouse, I can . . . uh, I can visit like I did before.  What could be better on a Saturday?  I suppose it would have been better if my football team had scored some points.  Maybe that's asking too much.

Heidi's blood counts are creeping up.  The Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) is still zero.  That's the one that determines when she can leave.  The white blood count is up to 0.5, which is the highest in two weeks.  It's progress. 

The latest prediction is to check out of this hoosegow maybe mid-week.  Then she gets a week of shore leave, with a return date with Donna Rubicin around the middle of November.  That hospital stay, called Consolidation, should only last a week, even though she'll be getting some of the same chemo drugs as this time. 



Who loves ya, baby?



On the HLA front, Toby and Robin submitted blood samples on Thursday.  It should take about two weeks to determine whether they match.  If they do, we could be at Fred Hutchinson in December. 



The whole shearing operation yesterday was an event enjoyed by all here on 3NW.  All except Heidi.  Well, don't take my word for it, watch the hair-shearing video.  I don't expect anyone to make it through the entire video, but you'll get a good flavor for the event by watching the beginning.  Be sure to listen for the soundtrack; I'm kinda proud of that little added touch.

Special Cosmotology Edition!!!!

My worst fears have been realized.  I have a misshapen head.  The way I see it, generations of hairy Armenians were never ostracized from Sheep Camp for having bad skull shapes because they always had perfectly coiffed head coverings.  Normally, guys with bad heads would have trouble attracting mates and passing on their bad head genes to future generations.  Generations of hairy Armenian men from which I am descended didn't have this trouble, because their misshapen heads were covered with fabulous hair.  

Before



Ah, but the Special Cosmotolgy Edition is not about me.  It's about the newest member of the cute hair club on 3NW. 




 






 

Mid-Process Enthusiasm


  

With the Mohawk Drag Chute



  

After







 

Near the End



 

Did I pretend it wasn't all about me?





How can you not give Noogies to

someone with a shaved head?



Week 3 gets a triple Yay

Corby, Steve and Heidi holding the remains of her Coiffe

For anyone counting, it's actually Week 3 plus a day, but that requires higher math and counting skills than I want to invoke which will lead to. . . okay, we've been there too many times.

We were told this morning that Heidi's white blood count went up.  The doctors came in on their rounds this morning and reported her red counts also went up.  "Double Yay" exclaimed Heidi.  "No, triple yay" replied Amit (whose name is also Dr. something I can't spell or pronounce), "your platelet count went up also."  This was amusing only because Dr. Amit _____ is not the type of person to exclaim, "Triple Yay!"  It is a sign that Heidi's enthusiasm has resumed and is even generating a surplus.

Holding other coiffe remains



It is also good news, perhaps, that her bone marrow is doing what it's supposed to do.  In this, I refer not to her enthusiasm but the trifecta plus-up in blood counts.  It may mean she won't need any more transfusions during this stint in the hospital.  I couldn't get the doctors to predict a discharge date, though.  Apparently my pension for planning has not overflowed and rubbed off on the white-coated ones. 

Heidi is still on the three different antibiotics, all given intraveneously.  The last one she started getting for the C. difficile in her gut.  The ironic part is that one of the possible side effects of the antibiotic is diarrhea, which is exactly the problem it is supposed to fix.

Color Coordinated

Okay, that's two jokes that were probably much funnier when they were told the first time.  Is everyone at least enjoying the photos in this post?

Okay, one more try.  Bruce gets a yay for donating blood yesterday.  He was all concerned about the question on the pre-donor screening about being in England at any time in the last 20 years.  Apparently they are concerned about people who could have contracted Crutchfield-Jacobs or taken a liking to vegemite.  Either can taint the blood. 

 

This is from a few days ago when Heidi was feverish,
but Monica is camera-shy so I have to include it when possible

This is my call out to everyone who might get intimated  by the blood donation pre-screening questionaire.  It can be very overwhelming.  They ask a lot of stuff that can make you worry.  But it's not worth getting too excited about.  If they screen you out, you just walk out to the snack section and eat their crackers and drink their juice and go home. 

The question on the blood donation questionaire that I always want to argue is the one about exchanging money for sex.  I have trouble answering that one.  I always want to ask the lab-coated ones if there are really people out there who don't pay in some way for sex.  Sure, most of us aren't actually exchanging dollars, but there is always some indirect payment, whether it be dinner or mowing the lawn.  So for the purposes of blood donation, I don't pay and I don't eat vegemite.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Day 21 and the fever is broke!

99 and Smiling

Heidi's temperature is down to 99F.  That's peanuts in the oncology wing.  They don't even blink for a fever that low.  They don't react.  They don't get excited.  They don't order more drugs.  They don't even discuss it in hush murmers, which is remarkable because many things get discussed in hush murmers.  They don't keep ordering body fluid cultures.  They don't do nothin'.  In fact, they don't even call it a fever.  They call it, well, they don't call it anything.  It's bupkis.  I'm gonna go over to Heidi's chart and write ain't got one in the temperature column. 

One thing they do do (ha! I wrote do-do) is keep up the antibiotics.  Once a medicine is started, they won't stop it without . . . I guess we haven't found out what it takes to stop an antibiotic.  Heidi is currently taking three.  I could list them all, but you'd get a headache.  Probably a latin headache.  I'm sure there's an -osis word for headache after reading drug names.  Look it up.  Ask your doctor for a prescription to cure a headache caused by reading your prescription.  Feeling circular?

It's been days since I discussed hair loss and haircuts and all things cosmetology.  Both of us still have all our curly locks.  Heidi's curly locks are partly in the wastebasket, and in this photo, partly on the bed.  This was taken a few days ago.  This pile is small by today's standards.  Every day she sets new standards for hair loss.  And every day I set new standards for retro hair styling. 

The Damaged Hair Goods

Just an aside, here, I've been accused of exaggerating the retro-ness of my retro hair cut.  I don't exaggerate.  Accusing me of exaggerating is the most rediculous claim ever made in the history of the english language. 

But back to hair loss.  Heidi's hair still looks pretty normal.  Normal for anyone else, but thin for her.  Still not in buzz-cutting territory, but getting closer by the day.  I thought it was going to be the end of last week.  Then I thought it would be over the weekend.  Now I think . . . well, only her hairdresser knows for sure. 

I was also asked again for the link to the Bone Marrow Donor Program.  That's a hot link there, underlined with the different color.  Your browser mileage may vary.  I received this interesting newsletter from the registry.  Might be interesting to some of you.

Sorry for the loopiness of this post.  I'm tired and going home.