Day Plus Fifty-Two

Here we are at "Plus Fifty-Two" over halfway... By the way, in case anyone was wondering. We just found out that there is nothing magical about one-hundred days. How do we know? We asked... Dr. Brunvand during one of our visits informed us that the one-hundred (Day Plus One-Hundred) is an arbitrary number selected by the
doctors way back when they started the program up in Seattle, Washington (The Bone Marrow Transplant program was  developed in Seattle, three of the founding doctors decided to break away and start a similar program in Denver). It was a number they chose as a date when
someone who was from out of town could fairly safely go home and resume appointments with his hometown doctor.
Jody continues to do well; she has her up and down days, though more are up than down. Jody and I continue to fight through the process... three clinic visits per week... twenty-five medicines to take at various times, with and without food... special trips to the hospital for nebulizer treatments, and quick
jaunts to the store for food and prescriptions. Our day is full; come 8 o'clock we are both tired, so it off to bed early. I am not going to deny it! It may be an age-issue... I know what you were thinking, so I said it. Jody's most recent visit to the clinic was exciting. We met with Dr. Brunvand, who expressed how excited he was with her progress. He was so excited he gave Jody a "High-Five" (with me we were both so excited we "whiffed"... you know, kind of half-way between lets do a
hand-shake... no high-five... no, I am over here... uh, up here!... OH! Well... let’s just laugh uncomfortably). Jody's counts have bounced around a bit, but every time we think Jody is closed to needing a transfusion her HCT bounces back. The latest CBC shows her White Blood Cells in the normal range along with Platelets and ANC. Her HGB (Hemoglobin is the protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs.) and HCT (Hematocrit is the proportion, by volume, of the blood that consists of red blood cells and is expressed as a percentage.) remain low; outside of the normal range. We have been told this is completely normal following a stem cell transplant. The red blood cells are the last blood cells to come back into the normal range.  We are hearing from a lot of you… asking why the blog is not being updated. I have been trying to get into a routine, but every time I get close I get side-tracked. I have now caught up on all of the insurance fillings and Jody is beginning to behave (my biggest concern is that she will let her guard
down). People have been asking for more pictures and more updates. Beginning next week I will once again be posting daily updates.
The title of our blog is Jody’s Garden, well the garden is now gone. I have changed the garden to a fall scene she can look at from the patio. Here are some pictures of our back yard.
OK... I am having an ISSUE... None of the tools are working on the blog... I will try adding the pictures again tomorrow...