President Hinckley

My brother sent this link to me, it was a touching tribute that BYU put together, I thought you guys would enjoy it as well. What an amazing man. Love to all.
Lou Ann

http://photo.byu.edu/video.php?cat1=Slide%20Shows&cat2=General&cat3=2008&cat4=Hinckley%20Tribute

Back To Paradise???

I can't believe it. Here I am making my very first posting to the Chrome Dome Diaries. I'm a little frightened! Jon- go easy on me, please! I just felt like I should give everyone an update on the a few of us who had to depart last week and head home to Hawaii. Since four of the six were sick traveling home (no, not the throw-up kind, thank goodness!) it was actually a pretty quiet flight- lots of sleeping going on. The girls were so happy to see their animals again-the fish, the dog, the calf, the lamb, the pig, the rats. What? Who said rats?? Oh those would be the rats that invaded our house while we were away. No, I am not kidding. Rat droppings and destruction in every room of the house. Every room. I think I cried, but I don't quite remember. It's all a blur in my mind. Well, after lots of laundry, sending Greg off to San Francisco the day after we arrived home, lots more laundry, unpacking about 17 pieces of luggage, getting sick myself (never fails when Greg is out of town) and lots more laundry (not all folded and put away yet!), and getting Greg back from SF, we are settling down to something more like normal. Whew. What a week. It wasn't all bad. Several of the moms from school pitched in and helped me in a variety of ways as I took care of sick kids and sick self. Cleaning my kitchen, remaking beds, grocery shopping, making dinner for us. We never really felt alone and had much to be thankful for, despite the rats. We miss being with you all and pray for Mom constantly. Aloha!

A MATCH, PERHAPS A MATCH!!

OUR HERO

Yes, according to our good friends at The City of Hope after testing and restesting it would appear that Uncle Dick may be our match. Alas, he is off enjoying himself in Beautiful Baja, but has graciously allowed himself to be recalled in order to keep an appointment for additional testing and a physical this coming Tuesday. Mom has already passed all of hers and so if everything is a go we could be moving into the City of Hope for our 100 day next round in our amazing oddessy. Keep your fingers and toes crossed and your prayers flying upward.

The Miracle of Forgiveness

If I had my wits about me, I would ask Shalaine or Jon to write this posting for me. I feel very impressed to write the feelings that have been on my heart for a while now and ask that you indulge my weakness in writing. I also want to add a disclaimer that this is directed at no one, or no incident, just my own thoughts and feelings.
The past year has been difficult for all of us. Some of our trials have been known to all: trying to sell a house, moving to a new city, frequent hospital visits, babies being born (a wonderful occurrence, but no walk in the park), new jobs started, jobs lost, working without pay, Leukemia….the list goes on. I also know that in every family, within every person, there are struggles that no one else knows about and they are many and varied. In the course of all this we interact with each other as a family, many positive interactions, but some negative. Our own personal struggles sometimes come out as rudeness or insensitivity towards others. Although we apologize we don’t really say “I’m sorry I said that, I’m really tired because I’ve been up with a screaming baby all night”. I know, sounds like an excuse, but letting our daily occurrences affect our interactions with others is human nature just the same. The point I’m really trying to make is that we all need each other now more than ever. The Lord gives us challenges to pull us together, to help us love one another more…it is Satan that tries to turn these situations into opportunities to pull us apart and hold grudges towards one another.
In this new year I want to personally ask forgiveness from any of you that I have offended or hurt (and I know there are many). I want to build my relationships with all of you. I don’t want Max to ask me in a few years “Why don’t we see those cousins?” What would I tell him? “Because your mother offended them a long time ago and can hold a grudge like no one else”. I need the love and support of everyone in this family and prayerfully ask that we all forgive each other of our weaknesses and help one another work towards the celestial kingdom. Like it or not, we are stuck together for eternity.

Note to Lurkers: Although this was targeted towards the Hendrickson clan, I also apologize for any of you that I've hurt or offended as well.

Grandma Driesbach's Ugly Chair Emporium

The next stop on our Leukemic Odyssey took us back to "Grandma Driesbach's Ugly Chair Emporium." Our purpose there, a new round of Chemotherapy. Every day at 2:00 for the next week, then two weeks of coming in twice a week for blood work and then another round of Chemo etc. until we go to bone marrow transplant. The purpose of this Chemo is to hopefully get our blasts below the magical 5% or at the very least to maintain all that we've accomplished until now. The new drug is Dacogen a drug with few of the side effects of the previous ones. Blood levels will not drop as dramatically, the risk of infection is lower, usually no nausea, etc. It takes about an hour or two each day to run it in. This is a whole lot better than more hospital time.
We did learn some interesting news in our visit with Dr. Luke. When we do go for Bone Marrow transplant our stay at City of Hope will be 5-6 weeks in the hospital and another two months living in a cottage on the City of Hope Campus so they can do daily monitoring of how everything is progressing. It looks like we will get real familiar with the City of Hope.
On the Statistic side White Blood Count at 2.9 and Platelets at 133.


Mom Enjoying Chemo

CITY OF HOPE II

This morning mom and I piled into the car at 8:00 Am to continue our City of Hope Odyssey. We arrived at 10:15 and began in the Blood Lab, followed by and echocardiogram, followed by a pulmonary function test, an appointment with Dr. Stein and then ending our day with a stress test. The good news of all of this is that mom is remarkably fit and able to undergo bone marrow transplant.
The visit with Dr. Stein was a bit less encouraging. We still have a blast of 10% in her bone marrow and so will be doing an additional round of Chemo in the desert to see if we can get below 5%. Either way we are still in line for a transplant and they are awaiting mom's HLH results as well as blood from Aunt Joyce for testing. We will then know whether we have a match or are going to the registry. Our next appointment is Feb. 11th at City of Hope. On the good side, White blood count up to 2.3 and platelets at 104.
We are happy to still be in the fight!!

Life in the ER

Thought I would post a couple of pictures of our brave little Kate in the Emergency Room last night. On Saturday she was at a party where they have blow up slides, bounce houses, etc.... she got a friction burn on her elbow at the party. I really didn't think too much about it. By Monday she was complaining of soreness so Jeff got out the trusty neosporin (it is supposed to cure everything isn't it?) and applied a bandaid. Yesterday morning it looked swollen and red and we knew we needed to watch it. By last night it was very swollen, red, irritated and had grown significantly. I took her to the urgent care (which I never do, but with all of the MRSA scare I thought I had better). The urgent care doctor took a look at it and noticed that it had started to streak up the inside of her arm to her armpit, he quickly referred us to Saddleback Memorial Emergency Room in San Clemente. Because of the streaking up her arm he felt like we should have it cultured and start iv antibiotics. There was no wait in the ER and we were in & out in a few hours. Doctor in ER diagnosed her with "Cellulitis" (The shock of the name has you immediately thinking of your own thighs doesn't it? And I am sorry to report that form of cellulitis cannot be treated by antibiotics) probably caused by a staph or other infection whose Latin name I can't remember.
So all is well, she is on two oral antibiotics for 10 days. She was so brave , did not even cry when blood was drawn and IV was placed and even earned a Webkin for her lack of drama. She is thinking this is the best as it includes time off from school :)

CITY OF HOPE

.The next chapter in our little Odyssey began on a beautiful day in Duate CA at The City Of Hope Hospital,one of the nations leading centers for cancer treatment and in particular Bone Marrow Transplant. City of Hope is one of 19 prestigious institutions nationally that make up the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The purpose of our visit to explore whether we are a candidate for Bone Marrow Transplant. We were in awe when we received our schedule for the day which looked something like this:

Arrival Time:.........................................12:55 PM

New Patient Visit......................................1:00 PM

Phlebotomy Main Lab....................................1:10 PM

Chest X-Ray............................................1:30 PM

EKG....................................................2:00 PM

Clinical Social Worker.................................2:30 PM

Dr. Anthony Stein......................................3:00 PM
New Patient Visit

Amazing, could a medical center be this efficient? Alas, by item 2 we were already 45 minutes behind and by skipping Social Work, we were able to see Dr Stein by 4 PM. So much for efficiency in health care. The purpose of our visit was the meeting with Dr. Stein and a bone marrow marrow biopsy which went very well. We were told that if we were going to do a transplant we would need to be in full or near full remission if that were not the case we would need to undergo additional Chemo therapy to get into remission. If we are in remission and one of Sharon's siblings is a match we could begin transplant in 2-4 weeks. He indicated quite a bit of additional testing would be required much of which we could do with Dr. Dreisbach in the desert. We then went on to the bone marrow biopsy. They had planned on giving Mom IV Demerol because prior biopsy's had been so painful. Unfortunately that wasn't possible so Mom could choose to do the test without Demerol or come back. Mom bravely chose to press forward and so Dr. Stein completed the test. Mom had almost no pain, probably because he does up to 4 biopsy's per day, a few more than Dr. Dreisbach does in a month. You don't know how happy I was to see the tube fill with bone marrow after 2 previous dry taps. After the procedure Dr. Stein immediately scheduled us back on Thursday to get the results and do the additional testing that he was going to have us do in the desert.
Our prayers now have to be for a blast of less than 5% and a Sibling Match. I'll update you on Friday Morning at the latest.


Mom in front of the City of Hope (What is it about Hospitals and fountains)

All tots go to heaven

While Mom's day at the City of Hope was filled with just that, the residents of Cathedral City woke up this morning to true tragedy and heartbreak. At five this morning, Sonic Burger caught fire and was burnt to the ground. As Stephanie runs to the bathroom to wipe away her fast falling tears, let us all take a moment to remember and appreciate the beauty that was Sonic.
My mind is flooded with sweet memories as I look back on all the wonderful time spent there: the day it opened and we drove all the way out there only to be told it wasn't opening for two more days, when we went back in two more days and it was still closed as a bunch of highschool dropouts in yellow shirts gathered around for their 85th day of training, the day we finally did get in and waited over an hour for a drive-in spot, the heavyset mexican girl that rollerskated into our front bumper carrying our tray of food, the hours I spent in the bathroom later that night as a result of said tray of food. Though the Sonic may no longer remain, these are moments that will forever be burnt in my colon.

Here is what some of the residents of Cathedral City had to say about their beloved restaurant:

"I'm very upset and sad." -General Manager, Don Fredrickson
"This was, no pun intended, their bread and butter." -City Councilman, Paul Merchand
"This is one of the best restaurants they built here, me and my friend Mike would come to get the coney dogs." -Cathedral City resident, Franky Bonilla
"The food sucked! I wouldn't be surprised if someone burnt it down to save others from grief." Email commentator, Sportinwoody

Yes, we will all remember and revere our dear Sonic. Their greasy hamburgers, their gelatinous gravy dipping sauce, and their laxative chilli fries will always hold a special place in my heart and thighs. Though we want to celebrate mom's good day at the City of Hope, January 14th, for myself and the other residents of the Coachella Valley, will forever be peppered with grief and sadness. And when all is said and done, when the grills have cooled and Sonic is but a distant dream, let us still remember the true heroes of the day- the tots.

"Grandma Dreisbach, what ugly chairs you have!"

"All the better for you to wait for hours in."
Mom and I went to see Dr. D's crib today. I wish I had my camera. Though it won't be on MTV anytime soon, if there was some network for hip geriatrics, it would definately be featured. It was every Grandma's dream. Big, tall backed, green and purple floral chairs everywhere with a few plain sage ones thrown in to stimulate the eye. There was no TV or big assortment of magazines, but there was a huge vase full of nasty hard candies and a plate of stale cookies. And of course the delightful smell of moth balls filled the nostril. All they needed was some blue and white m&m's and some freezer burned ice cream, and I think we all would have felt right at home.
Apparently, our little baldy is a rock star at Dr. D's. There were whiney people all around us that had been waiting for over an hour. They looked like they were starting to decay (and just between us, smelled a little like it too). But no such treatment for mamacita. They took her right away, pricked her pointer finger, and were back in under 10 minutes with the results. All good news- whiteys at 1.9 and platelets above 40. And bonus... the huge bump on her head that she acquired from an unfortunate run-in with a table leg isn't a hematoma after all. Just a little bruise and nothing to worry about. So tonight she can sleep soundly without picturing blood seeping in between the cracks in her brain.

Homecoming

Finally after a mere 50 days incarcerated in Room 358 on 3 East at Eisenhower we have been liberated. We broke out at about 3:00 PM on Monday. Our delay was due to mom needing 2 units of blood in her tank so she would have the fuel to get home. They were very sad to see us leave as they have not had a cash cow like that in a while. We arrived home to cheers and hugs. Mom requested a New York steak and baked potato for dinner (It appears the outstanding food service at Ike has raised her taste expectations), which she gulped down with eagerness. For desert Becky made chocolate chip cookies and Shalaine brownies, no problem, they disappeared as well. It would seem the no taste for chocolate is behind us, can diet coke be far behind? She then enjoyed an evening of TV and conversation and above all a good nights sleep in her own bed with Napoleon tucked beside her pillow.
Our next adventure will be at the City of Hope on Monday the 14th to find out where we go from here. Dr. Dreisbach is still very concerned about her suseptability to infections and so we continue to encourage prayers and dicourage visitors.
Below are some photo highlights:


Mom with Rebecca and Barbara


Mom with TJ,Michael, Carla, and Barbara


Mom diembarking her cool ride at home


Mom with the happy crew at home


Mom and the crew in her well decorated bedroom


Mom with her My Twin doll made by the Hawaii girls

Goodbye Room

In a big white hospital
in a crowded room
There was a little lady
But no flowers or balloons

Goodbye room

Goodbye hat

Goodbye pregunta poster over fake thermostat

Goodbye elevator

And broken blinds

Goodbye sign

And shaving time

Goodbye mittens

And goodbye food

Goodbye visits to the 358 room

Goodbye Shauna
And Goobye Matt

And goodbye Dorothy emptying "The Hat"

What is the Deal?

Yo! What up? What happened? We get a post that Mom is going home soon and we get nothing after that? No safe arrival posts? No pictures of the welcome home wagon there to meet her? No sparkling cider screwed open or poppers pulled with streamers flying all over the house?

Are all blogs these days just posts of gloom and doom? Can we not celebrate Emerald City, lounge chairs, and little people riding around on fake horses?

Maybe we haven't poured water on the wicked leukemia just yet but this should be a time of happiness for there will be no more room 358 and (for the moment) no more CNAs who wouldn't even make it as stand-ins on the sitcom known as Scrubs.

Please....for those who need a happy blog post or two, give us what we crave!!!!

The Last Hoorah

Mom is anxiously counting down the hours until she is free from 358 East. Most of her things have been taken home (minor miracle considering how much stuff had accumulated) and we took down all her pictures and cards today and put them in her binder of good wishes. She is saying good-bye to her nurses that seem like they should be part of the family by now, having her last meals (thankfully), and taking her last spins around the atrium.
The high point of the morning occurred when she once again tried her beloved chocolate. Many of the stalkers may not know that this chocoholic lost all taste for her oft craved treat...but not to worry, she will be ingesting at least 1 lb. of See's bridge mix when she arrives home. We really are getting our Nana back!

What's the new book?

So Shalaine, my Gone With the Wind book club is meeting this Thursday night so I need to know what book to purchase for my new weekend reading......I'm going to hold off and do the GreSha selection of Three Cups of Tea when our ward's book club does it--it's coming up on their list, so I guess I'll go with the next ShaSha read. Please do tell.

We are excited that mom is coming home tomorrow!!! Please take photos so we can see her joy when crossing over the Hendrickson threshold!!! We love you Nana and are glad that you are going home for awhile to rest and we are praying for your blasts and a match to be found. If anyone knows could you let us know if any of the siblings have been tested yet and those results?
Thanks. Lou

An Evening at Dunder Mifflin

Anyone who has worked the abbreviated night shift knows that not much happens, so there isn't much to report. Mom and I entertained ourselves with a little Jack in the Box and Season 2 of the Office. We were pleasured to watch one of the all time greatest episodes where Micheal Scott cooks his foot in the George Foreman grill. If that doesn't bring her Platelets and Grans up I don't know what will! Possibly an office reading of Threat Level Midnight, but I could be wrong.
Mom was feeling a little weak towards the end of the shift so we are guessing that blood transfusion is imminent. Nothing gets you going like a bag of blood...so day shift may be relieved from the marathon walk that is called "the Loop".

PS Jessica was Mom's day nurse, Renee the night nurse, and I saw Mary walk by in the hall--I didn't have the heart to tell them that they got beat out by Dorothy in the nurse exit polls.

Which Twin Had the Tony: Report from the Day Shift

As we approach our much anticipated departure new news is much harder to come by. After Mom got released from her pole we took the extended loop walk which became quite an adventure. We first had to dodge the Culligan truck in the service drive and then our walk up the ramp coincided with the construction crews end of shift. I can tell you patients have no priority when it comes to construction crews. I was concerned that we had come this far only to have her run over by stampeding construction workers. We clung to the railing using the pink walker as a weapon and ultimately prevailed. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading the Scriptures and offering prayers of gratitude for being spared.
Earlier in the week I snapped the following picture so the any doubt could be erased as to where Jeff got his "good looks." I'll let you decide for yourselves!

Peering into the Crystal Ball: The early AM Update

A visit this morning from Dr. Luke proved very informative. Platelet counts are holding at around 10. We anticipate a rise over the weekend. Red blood dipped a bit and she may be transfused this weekend. Strong indications are for a Monday release.

I asked Dr. Luke - in the hypothetical - that should mom be deemed in remission when she has her bone marrow test at the City of Hope on Jan. 14, what would be the next steps. He said that it was likely that the following Monday she would be readmitted for consolidation chemo therapy. If she is not in remission then we would await the recommendations of the City of Hope on experimental treatments that could be used to get the cancer in remission.

America's Next Top Models???

Corrie got a camera for Christmas and hasn't put it down since.

THANK YOU SANTA WHEREVER YOU ARE!!!!

Should old acquaintance be forgot

Not if Dro has anything to say about it. But if you don't share the same resolution of becoming the best little girl scout around and need some help getting in the 2008 spirit, check out the latest Chrome Dome Web Videos.
New Years held up to Hendrickson tradition and was a time of family, chaos, and insanity. Here's a little New Year's Hello from some of the elder Hendros to our Queen Chrome Dome:



And a little celebration from the wee ones.
Warning: Highly recomended that you do not watch prior to your a.m. can of Diet Coke or a double dose of Excedrin. Stephanie and I apparently took a much heavier sedative before this video was taken. We will be selling it in the back alley after church on Sunday.

Hendrickson Family Announces New Book Club

Big Moan................Another book club! I would have chosen a catchier title to make sure that everyone reads this post, but I know how you blogging junkies are since I am proudly within your ranks. It really doesn't matter what is written or how it is written, just the fact that it is in print and on the blog makes it worthy of your time. Therefore, no catchy title necessary.

So here goes the pitch for the new Sha-Jen book club.

If you heard about the Sha-Sha book club's selection "Jane Eyre" (one of my personal favorites) and thought that it sounded interesting, but old English classics aren't your thing----the Sha-Jen book club is here to fill that void.

Did you hear about the Sha-Greg book club and think "That isn't my cup of tea"? We are here for you.

There are so many bonuses about the Sha-Jen book club and I will list just a few:

The Book is FREE
Only two chapters to read a month
You have two years to read the book
You will gain insight, revelation, and testimony.

Is the suspense killing you? What is this book, where can I get one?

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith


The Sha-Jen book club is really a book club that we are all currently a part of.

On Saturday, I was sharing with Mom my goal of reading the manual prior to the Relief Society lesson so that I could be more prepared to learn and participate (also part of the goal includes bringing the manual with me to class). Mom joined in this goal and will be reading and studying it as well. If a woman who has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy in the past month and is on the eve of bone marrow transplant can make this goal, than we all should be able to. So we ask all of you "Blogging Stalkers" to join our ranks! Stand up and be counted! Post to the comments and let us know that you are on board for this fantastic ride!


P.S. There is also a great article in the January Ensign that details the production of this book (which took years), its sources, and content.

Little Vietnamese Sweat Shop

I came it to relieve Greg tonight and found Mom's door closed. I have to tell you folks that I'm lucky to be alive because when I opened it a serious backdraft flame shot out at me. No wonder Greg was nodding off...it was hotter than a Palm Springs summer in there! But we do whatever it takes to keep our little lady comfortable, so the door remained closed. It was time to change her toenail polish so I got out the polish remover and started making fun of mom in Vietnamese so she would feel like she was in a real nail salon. Although I didn't have callus remover ("you need it") I sweated away and got her all pretty to return home next week. Just at the point when we were seeing psychedelic rainbows from the fumes, we opened the door to air out the room and provide a much needed relief for this little Asian worker.
Aside from a fajita pita from Jack in the Box, we didn't do much else for the night. She was all tuckered out from the 5K she ran with Greg earlier in the day so she retired early. We also said goodbye to the new gold bedpanist, Michael, for he will be off for the next four days tiling his house (such a Renaissance man). Crazy to think we only have a few more days up here in 358 East!

Walk the New Walk: Update from the PM shift

The PM shift started very eventfully as mom unveiled the new loop walk. I understand that this walk was devised while Jon was care-taking and it doesn't take long to see his stamp. the walk loops around the Kidney Center (no going in there!!) past the Hope building, fakes toward the Annenberg Health Sciences building and then descends down a path through an underground security passage into the back of an unnamed building. Mom tells me that they wandered around in the basement of the building for a while until they realized that it was the main hospital building and they were able to return to her room (though it was just as likely that they would find themselves in the experimental dismembering lab). What you would expect from a Jon shift: lots of adventure and a little bit of luck.

We spent most of the afternoon reading in Three Cups of Tea. I didn't realize how boring a reader I must be, but on two separate occasions I found I was putting myself to sleep. Thank goodness for all those peppermints in the room that mom kept throwing my way or I would still be sleeping on bed chair right now. The book is good and quite inspiring (though, I just don't anticipate any books on tape folks offering me an audition). The most freeing thing of the day, however, came as I walked into the room around noon and mom and Shalaine were reading the part of Jane Eyre I had spoiled. Now that the H is burned to the ground and Mr. R's B is D who knows what awaits our diminutive heroine (this qualifies as a cliff-hanger not a spoiler comment).

SLICK RICK REPORT

Ricky is concerned that he has been bumped to page 2 as far as the family health is concerned and made a big case for getting a little press time. He proposed that there may be some out there in the vast audience of the Chrome Dome Diaries that may be a little bit interested in what was going on with him. I had to agreee with him, at least to the point that he likes to see his name in print, and so here goes. We successfully got Rick home from the hospital on Christmas Eve Eve after some major surgery and a week in St. Josephs Hospital in Orange. That was quite the challenge staffing two patients in two different hospitals in two different counties. However, "Hendrickson's never say can't" and so everyone stepped up and we pulled it off. Thanks to the Orange Co. clan and Nurse Kim who helped out for a day. He had the rod removed from his back and had an infectious area debrided. He has MRSA and so is now on IV antibiotics for the next 6 weeks and I have gained a new title of IV nurse. Each morning and evening I hang his IV's and montitor them for 2 hours. He is doing really well, I think because of the quality of his IV nurse, and should be full speed in the very near future. I know he's getting better because he's more prone to disagree with me than he was a week ago. All in all, Ricky is real happy to say adious to 2007 and hopes that 2008 is a much better year, and that is a major understatement.

Stalker Alert!

For all you lurkers our there, I just want to let you know that it's ok to post a comment. We would love to hear your feedback and mom checks (ok, I force her to read) the blog daily and I know she would appreciate hearing from all you out there in the sidelines. We all know your only as good as your last post, and when it goes uncommented we (ok, I) feel like a bloging failure sending my words out into the cold lonely world with only punctuation to keep them warm. You don't have to be a memeber of anything but the Loving Baldy Sharon club to comment, so stop lurking and make yourself known! However, I should also point out that if you prefer to be a little creepy crawly quiet lurker, we still warmly welcome you to the blog with open arms. Very silent no one will ever know it's just our little secret open arms.

white blood cells in the front, let me hear you grunt!

The walking cadaver (also known as Dr. Young) has sleepwalked his way back to his musty coffin abode never to return until the next full moon (or next weekend, whichever comes first). Which means today our little chubby cherub, Dr. Dreisbach, was back in action. Hooray! Three cc's for Dr. D! And on his little angel wings he carried not only smiles and rainbows, but lots of good news for our little lady.
First things first, all of mom's labs look pretty good. Her GRANs (combo of all the white blood cells) are starting to go up a little. This is a good thing, as now we want her body to start making them again. I know, it's hard to switch your brain over to voting for the little guys after routing for their demise for so long, but it's time to back the home team once again. At this point in treatment they tend to hover a little, going up one day and down the next, but if we see a steady increase for 3-4 days in a row, that's a great sign. So let's hope they eat their Wheaties and do their thing. Platelets are being lazy and just slowly dipping (think of platelets like little Dr. Youngs). They are at 9 today and hemoglobin is at 9.5. Dr. D says that sometimes they will switch between 9 and 10 for a couple of days before they start to hold steady and increase. So, he wants to hold off on transfusing today. He was extremely optimistic about how she is doing and (MOM'S DISCHARGE DAY SPOILER ALERT!) would like to get rid of her early next week- Monday or Tuesday. He eased her fears about going home and said that she is doing great and will be totally fine and that he actually feels guilty still keeping her here. I guess he doesn't know about the chaos that awaits her at the homestead.
He then gave her the best of news and said that when she goes home she can eat pretty much whatever she wants, no more dietary restrictions. Break out the carrots and onions, cause it's going to be a PAR-TAY! However after she has the bone marrow transplant, she will be on meds to suppress her immune system, so will need to be careful again. He also said it would be a good idea to get rid of all the plants in the house. So we need to give everyone's favorite palm springs plant man, Wayne, a ringy-ding to get his bum over and start getting those mold carrying death traps outta there.
I also asked our little bright eyed rosy cheeked friend about the rest of us getting tested for bone marrow. He said there really is no point. Siblings have a one in four chance of being a match and as for children, she has a better chance of getting a match from Australia. Or I guess China would be more likely. So look for mom to have strange cravings for fried rice and kitties in the future.
p.s. Mom wanted me to be sure and mention that Dr. Young told Dr. D that the sickest patient (meaning mom) was the easiest patient. I guess this means he was doing cartwheels and handstands in the other rooms.

The 1st annual Golden Bedpan awards

Is Mary the grandmother that you never had? Are you sick to your stomach about Michael leading the poles? Did you vote for Renee because you thought it was that one hot chick on the floor and just found out that it is actually the short chubby male night nurse? Are you thinking to yourself right now, "Hey! I like that guy, buddy. He looks like a little curly haired cherub." Well, then do something about it! Only 22 hours left to vote on your favorite nurse of Eisenhower 3 East. You have until 9am Wednesday morning to cast or change your vote. Remember, evil triumps when good men do nothing. And if the idea of Michael taking home the coveted Golden Bedpan is pure evil to you, get those fingers atyping.


The front runner in a rarely witnessed act of emptying "The Hat".