The Great Divorce and Other Sundries: Update from the early AM shift

With all of these clever posts, I must admit I am a bit intimidated (being a just-the-facts kind of update guy). I have abandoned the night shift for the early AM shift (7-10), and since it is a bit unseemly to be kacked out on the bed chair while dietary is taking the lunch order, I have had to come up with new activities. We still get the Dr. visits (generally around 7:30-8) - btw Mom's creatinine levels were at 1.1, red blood had dipped enough that she is getting two units today, platelets held at 17, and the bad white cells are 0 (I can't help myself). We have also taken up reading C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce and shuffling along bracingly chilly walks to the duck pond. We would read Jane Eyre, except for Shalaine's threats to rip out my tongue if I read Jane Eyre to mom without her (who needs that low-brow fiction anyhow).

Yesterday, we talked with Dr. Luke (a little younger and more cherubic than you thought he looked, huh!) about bone marrow transplants and donation. One interesting fact is that if you are white and Christian you have a much higher likelihood of finding a match in a national search. Its not because we are more genetically disposed to be have a match, it is because white Christians in greater proportion get screened and make themselves available to be donors (though China is catching up since they are starting to require that people are screened and make themselves available for donation - I suppose we really shouldn't call it "donation" for the Chinese). The process for being screened is as simple as taking a blood test. The process for donation is very similar to giving blood over a three day period (no, they don't need to bore into your bones and suck the marrow out). For more information check out http://www.marrow.org/.