Day 258, Year 7: He Made It
Date: Monday, July 23, 2012
Weather: Cloud Cover with Sun Shining Through
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Mark had the final blood test and visit with his oncologist this morning prior to his LAST chemo treatment tomorrow morning. Yeah!!! He was a bit disappointed with the results of the blood test today as his neutrophil count was down, but Dr. Crook wasn’t a bit disappointed. She walked in with a big smile saying, “You made it!” What she meant by this was that he was able to keep his blood counts in the normal range throughout the six months of treatment. Even though the critical neutrophil count was below the normal range this time, his total white cell count was still fine, so he can go ahead with the final treatment tomorrow. The low neutrophil count puts him at risk for infection, so he should stay away from crowds of people for the next couple of weeks. Once he makes it through the roller coaster ride of lows and then highs of these two weeks, the celebrations will begin. He will feel absolutely awful beginning on Thursday evening and will remain that way for the following four or five days. Then by mid-week next week, he will start feeling better, but this time he won’t have to be knocked down again. He will be under ‘surveillance’ for the next five years, but the hope is that if there were any cancer cells remaining in his body after his colectomy in January that the chemo treatments have wiped those out and that he is totally cancer-free. A super healthy diet and lots of exercise are the keys to recovery, so starting in August, we have to get our lazy selves out there exercising.
After the appointment with the oncologist, we headed back to Woods Hole so I could do my Monday walk with Oliver. Heather is on the air every Monday from 9:30 to 10:00 and Jed stays home with Oliver. Then he brings Oliver to Woods Hole and I take him in his stroller for a nice long walk while Heather continues to work. Today she decided to go home for the afternoon instead of staying in Woods Hole since internet access was on and off in the village today. So when it was time to go get Sam and Jonah, Mark and Heather, as well as Oliver, went with me. Heather got some more work done in the afternoon and Mark and I switched off entertaining or just holding a sleeping baby.
Our car is still in for repairs, so we are juggling cars with Heather and Jed. Schedules are crazy for tomorrow, but we think we have a plan worked out. Hopefully the Ford Taurus will be out of the shop tomorrow so we don’t have this daily issue of figuring out who needs to be where at what time and how they will get there.
Our thoughts are with Justin and Jo tonight. Tomorrow is Jo’s due date, but as far as we have heard that baby is staying put for now. We hoping for a smooth delivery. So hang in there, Jo. In just a few days we’ll have grandchild number five and Jo will feel a tad less inflated. And we’ll have the first baby girl grandchild.
