9 AM Wednesday, July 20, 2011

All is well with Ed.  Went to his doctor appointments on Monday afternoon and they said his labs looked fine.  His overall white count is good, but neutrophil count was a little lower than they wanted, so I gave him an extra Neupogen injection when we got home.  His platelets and red cells are right at the borderline of low normal, so they will just watch them to make sure they don't drop, which would require transfusing. 

The home health care nurse will draw blood again on Thursday this week to see how his counts are doing and then he goes back to UCLA a week from tomorrow to check in with the doctor.  So far, all is well.  He has been given the okay to drive short distances and can get out a little in uncrowded places and walk in the neighborhood.  Yesterday he washed his own car (?) but he gets pretty tired after just about any activity and he needs to rest as much as possible to not overdo.  We'll see how long that lasts.  He's really chomping at the bit to get going on SOMETHING.... and I can't blame him.  I'm loosening my grip on the reins of warden because he just needs to learn to pace himself.  Each day that goes by without a step backward is a day toward his goal of being back to doing the things he enjoys.  We're just ticking 'em down. 

He's eating better each day, even though foods don't taste normal to him yet.  Probably a side effect of the chemo - most everything tastes like cardboard or has a metallic taste, but we're trying different things to see what works and everything is helping him get stronger.  The doctors say the process takes many months, but we all know how quickly time seems to be going by at our age! 

Thanks for staying in touch.  Feel free to call Ed's cell.  He'll usually answer unless he's sleeping. 

Love to you all,
Liz