Saturday +31 (08:45 PM) The Eyes Have It

Today was another good day for Jackie. She is still low on energy and nauseated from time-to-time, but things could be worse. She is doing well enough that we have tomorrow "off". For the second weekend in a row we don't have a hospital visit tomorrow. I believe on Monday we will discuss "graduation". At that point we will move from daily hospital visits to "Charleton 9" visits. Charleton 9 is the transplant floor. We would move from daily hospital visits with blood tests to two or three time per week doctor's visits in an office. I'm not certain how often blood tests would take place; probably on the days off. So we are likely to still have either a doctor or hospital visit most days.

Jackie's blood counts have trended down a bit over the last couple of days. Still nothing serious and only a part of the process. If her RBC (Hgl) counts would move into the 12+ range I think she would have plenty of energy. For a lot of people it takes a year to get to full, normal counts. Again today we shared a room with another transplant patient during our doctor/bloodwork visit. The patient was +55 and her WBC count was still only a 0.9. Jackie's was 3.2 today (it has been as high as 5.2). Her neutrophil level is still 1.56 which is still very good for this stage of the process. Her RBC (Hgl) count was 9.6 today, down from 10.3 yesterday (and a high of 10.5). Her platelet count was 99, down from 110 yesterday (and a high of 161.

So what's with the eyes?

Jackie wanted to get out of the apartment today so we visited a flea market and some antique stores. While rummaging around I came across a set of 6 hand-blown glass eyes from the late 1800s. I had to have them. Now I'm sure most (all) of you are asking, "Why would anyone want THOSE?" Well, they aren't for me! It seems our largest tobacco customer is a strange, oddball store in Missouri that is a combination grocery store, hardware store, liquor store, smoke shop, and museum. These folks sell a LOT of our products. One of the prized areas of their museum is a glass eye collection. It is their "piece de la resistance". They always save it for the last exhibit on their tour. They don't have any glass eyes like these! So, in the spirit of keeping these folks our biggest and best customers I will be donating my newfound glass eyes to a museum. I'm not sure they will be getting all 6. I might keep a couple. You never know when one might come in handy. Anybody remember the scene from the movie "The Sons of Katie Elder"? Dean Martin demonstrated how to always get free drinks in a bar with an eye patch and a spare glass eye! Rent the movie and you'll see what I mean.

They really are quite amazing. Each one is slightly different. They are all just a little different in terms of color of the sclera (the white part). They even have tiny red veins in some. So, that's why there are eyeballs on the blog tonight!

I wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone for the cards, letters, and gifts as well as the comments on the blog. I think Jackie received 4 or 5 cards and one gift today alone.

Until later,

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN