Excellent Flute, Nadine's Counts Still Down, Travels

Nadine's neutrophil count has been stubborn -- on Tuesday they had crept up to 500, still not enough to re-start a chemo cycle, and today they'd gone down to 400. The red blood cells, etc., were up, as were the other counts. They'll be tested again Friday morning, but already it's been 2 weeks late starting the chemo. Makes me nervous. Am I worried? Yes. Although, amazingly, she's been feeling well. Today we were in the clinic a long time -- bloodwork, physical exam, asparinase injection, wait period afterwards.

Yesterday,in spite of all of this, she had an excellent flute lesson, regaining her magnificent tone. Sophia Gibbs Kim, her flute teacher, came to the house, and they played some duets together with wonderfully sweet harmony, and Nadine also went over solo stuff -- just gorgeous. I'm so glad this happened.

She's been feeling relatively well too.

She went to a photo-shoot for TLAC (Teens Living with Cancer) that night, and it was mega-fun -- a fun photographer came and did outdoor pictures of the 4 or 5 girls, and after that they stayed and watched a movie together. All of the girls were "dressed" in fun ways, and there was much merriment. I enjoyed some talks with the parents.

Nadine and I went back to the Southern Tier over the week-end, the very first time we'd gone since she was diagnosed. Our own house, Nadine's own cat, the trees. Nadine spent much time doing stuff with Barry and cuddling the cat, reading and watching movies. I was hoping to get the place "decluttered". Nadine wanted to clean up her room and went through piles of stuff. I did about 15 loads of laundry.

I admittedly got extra sentimental about her "little girl things" with all that's been going on. Okay okay, I would have been sentimental in any case.

I wasn't going to ask for help sorting the basement, but my friend Kim Driscoll, who has a wide smile and a passion for art, contacted me right before I arrived and asked if there was anything she could do to help out. I told her she might regret having made that offer -- she came, and it was actually fun, and easier, doing it with a friend. More than a car-load of stuff got designated for Freecyle and similar stuff.

I had to change Nadine's wound dressing down there, only I'd forgotten to bring the anti=dressing stuff including the Aquacel anti-microbial silver-laden absorbent dressing, the Allyvan pads, the sterile saline syringes, etc. To my relief, there was suitable stuff at the Olean General Hospital pharmacy, only about 8 miles away, although I had to traipse to Rite-Aid to look for sterile gauze sponges. I went back to the house, got Nadine ready, removed the Allyvan pad, and the old dressing wouldn't come out -- the first time that happened. The nurse suggested rolling it out with a gauze sponge, but it started to bleed and I gave up, put back a pad, and let Jessie the nurse handle it the next day. At least it got aired out.

We were going to go back to Rochester and a birthday party, but Nadine didn't feel up to the party, so we stayed in the Southern Tier through Tuesday morning, before happily driving back up to Rochester.

Tonight, Nadine went off to Sylvia's house for a sleep-over. Although this sounds dumb, an ingrown toenail was cause for concern about infection -- it actually is a little infected, so I had to make sure the foot got soaked. Leukemia seems to make lots of ordinarily little things concerns for complications.

I'm glad she's getting a fun visit. She deserves it. As for me -- time for bed.