February 23, 2009 11:15 PM 94 days to go

Well, we dodged a mini-bullet today when we went to the clinic and I didn't need any unscheduled infusions. Admittedly, I was skating on thin ice here as my counts were near their baseline limits that would require blood and/or platelets. Not having any infusions shortens the visit by about 3 hours. It was also the last day for the short methotrexate chemo infusion. So that is now behind me.

On the other hand, as my counts are where they are, they wish to monitor me very closely so we now have to go back on Wednesday and possibly Friday this week. At this juncture, my counts are starting to make the expected decline as I become neutropenic. Thus, I don't expect that on Wednesday we will be as lucky as today. The lowered counts are expected to last about a week.

Otherwise, my test results showed that there is nothing outside what is expected so I am doing fine. Each time I go to the clinic, they also do a mini-check of my heart/lungs/mouth, they take my vitals (oxygen level, weight, temperature, and blood pressure), they check for fluid retention, and they ask the usual litany of questions including nausea, appetite, rashes, etc. Each time all of these items are fine as well.

So I am still very fortunate to maintain my status as the perfect patient poster child. Thank you, God. I am very grateful for it.

And, thank you all very much for keeping those prayers coming...

Bob