Day +9 and Happy Spring!

As I type this Jim and Reid are snoring away.  I'll try and concentrate...but it won't be easy!  Jim has always snored, but with Reid it is something new and I attribute it to the sores in his throat.  However, the good news today is that after many days the throat finally feels a little better.  He was able to drink the milkshake we brought today.  That's a big improvement over yesterday when he had one sip of milkshake and nothing else all day.  The nurse told us yesterday that all of a sudden the throat would feel better and the sores would disappear as quickly as they came.  She knows her stuff.

Today his white count was 1.3 up from .3 yesterday!  He can be discharged when the count is at 2.0, AND he can swallow his pills, AND he can drink 2 liters, AND his fever is normal for 48 hours.  The nurse seems to feel that this will happen soon.

All the nurses here are amazing.  They are excellent at what they do and all seem to enjoy their jobs.  As one nurse put it, "They really take care of us here."  I get the impression that MD Anderson really values their nursing staff.  They encourage all their nurses to get advanced degrees and pay for it...totally.  Then they move them to a higher pay scale.  As one nurse put it, "It's a win-win situation for them."

I just can't say enough about how good the nursing staff is here.  They are on the ball, well trained, and know exactly what to expect.  A very competent and compassionate group. 

Reid did develop a few nodules under his skin three or four days ago and today they biopsied them just to be on the safe side.  We should hear something in a few days.  They could just be another side effect from the chemo or something like a fungal infection.  Some have actually gone away, so hopefully this is just a big nothing. 

The lung culture from the other day never showed anything and that's good news.  His fever comes and goes, but it remains a low grade fever when it comes.  The nurse explained to us that when they start producing white cells the body sometimes mistakes that for an infection and gears up to fight infection with a fever.  After a while things settle down and the fever goes away.

When we arrived this morning he was out of his room taking a walk.  He's walked every day since he's been here except for the three worse days.

He just got up and went out for another walk.

Happy Spring!  For us it's been a good first day of Spring.  Betty