Day 55, Tuesday, 4:20pm

Dr. Ebrahim had decided to keep Anne here at least one more night. Her count of Neutrophils wasn't as high as he would like. He explained the white blood cells help prevent infection, and the neutrophils in the blood help prevent bacterial infection. He said now that these counts are rising, nothing will stop them. He will keep Anne on the anti-biotics, and he expects to send Anne home tomorrow. He'll be back in the morning tomorrow.

That's when we'll talk more about the 'rest' period. He said in 4-6 weeks we'll have a Catscan and a scope to check on the tumor and lymphnode where the cancer was last seen. Then he'll arrange meetings where we'll meet with the surgeon (Dr. Doug McGillvary). Anne will work to get in better shape during and after resting so she'll be better fit and able to recover from surgery.

He said they wait the 3-4 weeks to do the Catscan and scope because if done now it would actually 'look like raw meat in there'. Hence, the reason for the nausea and pain meds. He said in a couple of weeks that Anne would feel alot better than she does now.

Anne just got herself cleaned up, and she's exhausted, not from the laps we took around the floor, but from getting cleaned up. She has alot of work ahead of her to lick this disease, but there's no doubt that she is better now, and that she is going to succeed.

Day 55, Tuesday, 2:50pm

Celebration day !!

It's for Anne who has completed her cancer treatments !! Yes, she had R/T here at Maine Med today, and that's all there is. I hope I'm not jinxing her because we haven't actually seen Dr. Ebrahim yet today, but as far as we know there's no more C/T or R/T.

We just learned that Anne's white blood count is 1900 today. That is up from 1100. We're told a decent low number would be 4000. Regarding the immune system tho, I have learned there is at least one other factor (and probably others). It's the count of neutropils in the blood. We don't have that number for today. Depending on that as well as the white blood count, the Dr. will decide if it's ok for Anne to go home, whether she can have any company, go out in public, under what conditions, etc, etc...

I think she'll be dissappointed if she has to spend another night here. She's been feeling good since last night, considering that she has pain and nausea all the time. I've seen her ask for pain and nausea meds twice today but never complain about either one. She's a strong girl, sometimes a little strong for her own good as we've discussed. However, we definately don't want to go home to soon and risk having to be admitted again any time soon.

Dr. Ebrahim is on the floor now so we'll see him pretty soon. What happens next is up to him. Anne wants to ask him what he thinks about the disruption in her R/T schedule. I want to ask him about the impending 'rest' period, how long it might be before we'll want to see the surgeon, when we might have another scope done to check on the tumor that was found in December, etc...

I beat Anne at cribbage today and yesterday. Only one game each day tho. If we had played best of 5 she would have cleaned my clock as usual.