Merry Christmas and Happy New Year --- January 2, 2008

Merry Christmas to all our friends, relatives, and co-workers. We hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and that 2008 has good things in store for all of you. Our Christmas was without the usual gift-giving, decorations, and outdoor lights but we were able to get together with family, which really is the best part of the holidays anyway. In the past two weeks Jan has continued to get stronger as we waited for the hospital to call to begin the consolidation phase of chemotherapy. Well, this morning, at 7:45 A.M., we received the call. Moffitt hospital said that they had a bed available. We arrived at the hospital at 10:00 A.M., checked in with our luggage (we were already packed this time), and answered the usual twenty minutes of questions. Jan’s nurse re-inserted two port needles into her chest and quickly drew three tubes of blood. Around noon they delivered a standard lunch which included a turkey slice (at least it looked like turkey), mashed potatoes with some sort of yellow gravy, and some carrots. There was also a small bowl of vegetable soup and some pound cake. Jan ate the soup and cake, while I sampled the rest. Around 1:30 P.M. Chris, the Physician Assistant, came into the room to announce that the lab results revealed a low platelet count, and that Jan’s regular oncologist, Dr. Chervenick, had been notified. His instructions were that we should go home, and return Friday morning at 7:30 A.M. for another bone marrow biopsy (number six for those us still counting). So, we packed up our suitcases, received our discharge orders, and we are now back at home waiting for Friday. We assume that a good biopsy report will mean that we can return to the hospital and continue with the planned consolidation therapy; or perhaps, depending on the results, we will have to go to Plan-B. We don’t know what Plan-B would be, so all we can do right now is hope that Friday’s biopsy results will be favorable.