Saturday, May 2, 2009

Last Harpoon Monday; Week Long Respite from Chemo Starts Tuesday

Hello everyone. This week Luke received the his double chemo injections M-W-F. Wednesday was his longest day as in addition to the chemo he needed another unit if platelets and two units of blood. To date Luke has needed 2 units of platelets and 11 units of red blood. He is just one Leukemia patient at MDA so you can imagine how much blood MDA needs on a daily basis. MDA needs all the platelets and blood they can get!!

Luke is feeling good despite some pretty low hemoglobin. Also with no white cells the Docs wanted him in isolation as much as possible. By week end all counts did look to be trending up.

To the right is Luke and nurse Anna. Anna is a cancer survivor herself and has been a delight to get to know. She has administered most of Luke’s chemo, blood and platelets as an outpatient and took responsibility for harpooning Luke’s left thigh on Friday.

The Luke story of the week comes from Wednesday's clinic appointment. Nurse Brandie came back with Luke’s lab results but before she could say anything Luke asked what super hero powers he had tested positive for. She had to have him repeat the question and responded with "those results aren’t back yet".

Uncle PJ was a surprise visitor this week. He stopped by when driving from Kansas City to Tulsa for Colin’s (his son) soccer tournament (he was aware that Tulsa via Houston was not his shortest route). PJ stayed long enough to donate some chicken broth (aka as platelets) and red blood cells to MDA as well as supervise the MDA nursing nursing staff administering to Luke after Friday's chemo.

You can form your own opinion but judging from the picture to the right it looks to me like donating is either truly painless or MDA provides a complimentary dose of Valium before hand.

PJ brought Luke a book that was highly recommended by Chase (his other son). The book is one with extensive and very profound insights into life. It provoked laughter from Luke numerous times during Friday's chemo. As testament to the sophisticated nature of the book, when his parents asked what was so funny Luke's response was “you don’t want to know” or “you wouldn’t understand”.

PJ also brought a box full of his version of the "Ass Hat". The design was done by one of the design architects at his firm. I call you attention to the picture below and the subtle curvature in the lower portion of the "SS".
By the way PJ left at 6 am to continue the drive to Tulsa Saturday morning only to get a call at 9 am that the soccer tournament was rained out!


Kendall reports that the response to the blood drive has been great. All the time slots are close to being booked and she says she may need to think about MDA bring in more tables.

We expect to finalize plans for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fund raising event this week. We do know Luke will provide entertainment and Wal-Mart has donated a 42” LCD TV that will be raffled off along with other items. Right now we are working on two dates, Saturday May 30 and the afternoon/evening of Sunday May 31. We will finalize ASAP but for now please keep those dates open to help us help others in their fight with Leukemia.


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