Remission..... & Parasites???

Today started early with a 0730 surgery appointment. We were up at 0600 to get Florence ready for transport. We were in pre-op by 0620 and headed into the surgical ward at 0720. As Florence went into surgery Kris (RN for 5C) came by to tell me that Florence’s 5C room was needed for another patient so I had to go down to clear out our belongings. Now we came with everything in 2 cases but now I filled 3 cases, a daypack, plastic tub, and still had a duck, radio, and 2 blankets that I couldn’t get into anything. Boy, what you manage to collect in a month while on vacation. This always seems to happen.

After clearing the room I went to the waiting room until the surgeon arrived. He told me the surgery went very well and they were able to biopsy some lung sections with multiple nodes contained in them for pathology to analyze. Flowing surgery, Florence was delayed getting into her ICU room arriving by 1500 (3pm) with O2, IV pole, PCA unit, chest tube, and arterial line in place. She had already made friends with the nursing staff by the time I was asked in. Go figure…..

About 1700 (5pm) the medical team (BMT) came to Florence’s room and told her that Wednesday’s bone marrow test show no Leukemia (complete remission). The lung samples are being looked at and cultured but appear to be an infection. Dr. K said with a smile, ‘maybe a parasite you haven’t had that yet’. Florence rolled her eyes and smiled. Monday we will discuss consolidation chemo that I think Dr. K said might start the next Monday.

So tomorrow should see Florence with her tubes removed and possibly back in the BMT unit. By the way, don’t call the old room number anymore because we are not there. We are not sure where we will be tomorrow but the nurses on 5C all expressed they wanted Florence back but they are currently full, but then who knows.

For me, tonight has me in the sleeping room on 5C. Florence’s nurses were good enough to secure it for me to get a good nights sleep. Thank you to them.

Plans are still to be back home Monday. I will keep you all informed.

Take care and thank you for all the support……
Larry

PS.
Stats from last nights labs…
White Cells 3000 (4500 - 11000)
Neutrophil 1.320 (1.8 – 7.7) **
Red Cells 3.48 (4 - 5.2)
Platelets 145 (150 - 400)
No Blood transfusions since July 7
No Platelet transfusions since June 29
** these are the ones we are waiting for, a sub-group of white cells that attack bacteria, etc.