Thursday +100 (Afternoon)

So today is the magic day! Day +100. The day we once thought would never arrive!

We began tests yesterday. The primary test was the bone marrow biopsy. This test requires they drill a hole in your hip and remove marrow via a large diameter needle. Fortunately Jackie was sedated and didn't feel a thing. Later in the evening she had some pain, but it wasn't too bad. On Wednesday she had somewhat of an "off" day. Nausea, no appetite, etc. Today she is better.

We began the day today with a bone marrow density test (a scan), bloodwork, a chest X-ray, a PET scan, a mammogram, and more bloodwork. It is now 3:00 and hopefully we are about finished. We received her bloodwork numbers a few minutes ago. They aren't as good as I had hoped. Her RBC (Hgl) was 10.3 which is down from last week's 10.8. Her WBC count is low. It has dropped to 1.3. Her ANC level is .44 which is below the threshold of .50. This makes her officially neutropenic and subject to fevers, infections, etc. Her platelets have dropped to 98. Of course these numbers can vary from day-to-day, but I had certainly hoped they had all improved.

Tomorrow we meet with the doctor. I suspect he will order some growth factor shots in an attempt to increase her WBC count. If he feels Jackie is ready they will also remove her Hickman central line tomorrow. I am a bit hesitant about returning to Pryor with her WBC count so low. If she were to run into difficulty I might not be able to get her to Rochester. So, I don't know if we will be returning on Saturday as planned.

To top things off, I imported 18,500 fishing lures from China. They are sitting in OKC and the idiots from US customs won't allow them to pass through because they don't have a tiny sticker on the bottom that says, "China". They want me to remove all 18,500 from their Cellophane packaging and apply a sticker. All this while some terrorist is trying to figure out how to import plutonium for a dirty bomb and people are smuggling in heroin. Anybody have any contacts at US Customs?

Until Later....

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester