Easy day by recent standards. This is all part of the eb and flow of the blood healing. Summer is doing well with her energy. We walked a decent distance from the car to the entrance to St. Jude today. Most of the day she was walking on her own without holding me for balance. Yesterday I laughed at her because she was trying the same thing, but it looked like she had her “sea legs”. Anyone who has ever cruised or spent days on a boat knows that wide walking stance that helps you keep balance. That’s how she was walking. But, she was doing it without any assistance, which was the point.
Bloodwork was done here at Target House first thing. About an hour later we made our way to St. Jude and prepared for a consult with our team about the results. Thanks to the new Apps, we can see the results as fast as the doctors and staff. That’s good and bad. Summer sometimes googles her results and then finds medical journals from the 70s that tell her “unusual platelet shapes mean immediate death”. I told her to stop that!!! Lindsey told her as much the other day… You are at St. Jude… We are killing your blood and we know it in unusual shapes right now! She didn’t say that exactly, but it was close.
Before we left for St. Jude, I called Angela but she was not at her desk yet. The guards asked if she could call me back. I said sure. Angela called back in a few minutes and I told her we had a problem. I can’t find the straw-cleaning brush. Summer uses a lot of straws and we try to reuse them (so we save the oceans). Funny enough, Ang didn’t think that was a big enough problem to be paged at work to call her husband in Memphis at St. Jude. Summer and I thought it was important.
Back to the point… We knew she had some suspect numbers today. The main one of concern was platelets. White blood cells, hemoglobin, and the other readings were all fine. Summer was fully convinced going into the hospital today that she would be getting a transfusion later in the day.
Oh god… Please no! I packed my bag with all my gear just in case I was there till 11PM again!
Katie talked to us and asked if we saw the numbers. We all knew where this conversation was going. Katie said they all thought she could make it another day before another transfusion of platelets. When. That’s a relief! She said they would do a reading on Friday, but plan on a transfusion then.
We had one request… Make the appointment for any time before noon on Friday. That led to a bit of a convo about late nights on Monday and Tuesday. We did not want that again on Friday.
Our appointment came through shortly after leaving the clinic. 8:30 Transfusion. Beautiful!
Summer and I had lunch. She ate a few bites of cherry cobbler and I had a decent BBQ sandwich. After lunch Summer had another appointment with the mental health people. We didn’t talk much about that… I can’t remember what we were talking about… But not that. Oh, she is still taking meds for the CDiff and wanted to know if she is done. We still have medicine, but she has done all of the recommended days. Technically, by St. Jude standards she is supposed to be in isolation. Katie said she would remove her from that status.
We picked up a prescription and headed back to Target House. 
When we got back to the room… I had to call Angela again. Another emergency.
The room smells.
My wife is the queen of plug-ins, Scentsy’s, wax melters, essential oil vaporizers etc. You can tell that I have not been running anything that smells good in this apartment for a week. Ang has a melter and this oil diffuser thing, but I have not refilled them. I once again got a stressed-out Wife on the phone who did not share my urgency on this subject. She walked me through the replacement materials and fill procedures on both. Anne Sullivan probably had an easier time with Helen Keller.
I’m glad we called, we now have a piney, minty aroma in the abode. It’s far more pleasant to the nose.
Food donated by Chic’fil’e or however you spell it. Summer was just thrilled they had sauce. I will never understand how their sauce got to be so prized.
Wish us luck on a short day Friday.
Hi, honey. So glad to hear you were walking and eating and feeling better today, also that you were able to get Chick-fil-A sauce. Their sandwiches are really good, even with just pickles. We never did get to the one in East Peoria, but will do that when you are back home.
Love you, Grandma Linda.
Nice, I see you’re a man of history. That was hilarious and most certainly is my ‘Favorite Sentence of All Time’. (Replacing…”We’re not responsible for that!” ) Also, if you’d be so kind, I see no need of my wife getting wind of any of this. Sending good vibes from afar. Wes
Helen Keller?
Since my wife is nowhere in sight…yes. Also, remember to not park under any trees 😉 Wes
Dont worry… I will only park there if I want to conjure the spirits of Service Past