Day Eight - Friday

Friday (um the 13th) was a great day!

It started with me feeling well, was followed by Jen visiting, some time back-filling my blog, and blossomed out into even more...

Visit with Dr. E
My Doctor only gets a few minutes to see me on her rounds, and is out of town at the moment, so its sort of strange, but you don't get that much time with the main person overseeing your care. However, in the Bone Marrow Transplant ward there is a doctor on the floor who happens to be a bit of a specialist in APL. I got the chance to talk with him today, and learned a lot. 

On Tuesday, I had an orientation to what I would be going through from the Education team,  but Dr. E gave me a whole different point of view--more of a holistic view of how the disease is fought, and its history and some insights into its future. For an info-lover like me it was fascinating. He even has a presentation that he has given internationally to keep the oncologist community up to date.

Here's a few key things to remember about the disease too:

1. No one knows why you get APL, but its not genetic, so family does not need to test for it.
2. It's not infectious--no one I come in contact with can catch it from me. 
3. There is nothing that I did to bring it on--it just happened.

All of that is nice to hear as you sort of wonder. 

There was even a practical side to having him look over my charts. Apparently a medicine that another doctor prescribed to ward off fungal infections was oral, and can interact with the Vesinoid--so he swapped it out. Nice to have yet someone else looking out for me.

I'm a lucky man.

He also mentioned www.nccn.com. I plan to check it out.

Cookies

Jen made me some cookies, and in other good news, today I ate some. I'm back to some solid foods at least--though I'm still not eating a whole lot.

Anna

Talked with Anna, my daughter, on the phone about all sorts of things. At three she's not much of a phone talker, but I heard about her Valentines party at school and another with Mom's club and her grandparents all being there tomorrow on valentine's day, and making cookies and so many wonderful things!!!  As she got off the phone she said "I talked for a long time!"

It was so good to talk with her. She has not visited yet but will once she's not got a runny nose. I learned from Dr. E. that kids actually produce 10 times the infection of adults. I don't remember the terms he used, but it was along the lines of: "If a child and I both have the same cold, I will be putting 1,000 (of the virus) and she will be putting 10,000 (of the virus)."

Strolling

I threw on the new robe Jen got me, donned a "don't infect me" mask, and went for a walk in the hall. I know its not much--but after being all but bed-ridden for a week, it was really wonderful to walk up and down the hall. I even did 30 minutes on the treadmill at the rip-roaring pace of 1 mile every half hour. What a boost! It really felt great.

Dollhouse

All of that was followed up by a light dinner and a little TV. I watched Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's new show. It is still getting its legs, some bad acting, but some good ideas, and it has a lot of potential.

And that was Friday--a great day.