+43

Update from the hospital. Louise and I had to rush up today for a sonogram of my abdomen. The CT found gallstones and my doctors wanted to see if they were obstructing anything. They are not. During the ultrasound they also checked out my liver and kidneys for inflammation and they checked out just fine. To control the gallstone pain my docs put me on a low fat diet. Good news is she said I can go off the low sodium diet. I don't know which is worse - I love fatty ice cream. Oh well another diet to follow. I am just happy to be off the all liquid diet and eating real food again.

My counts are looking good - up from yesterday. Thank god since they are threatening to give me a shot to boost my system.

Louise and I were then shuffled off to the ENT to check out my ears. The ENT said they look just fine and there is no infection. More good news.

We left before my chemistry counts came back to see what is up with the liver for today. However I think I was poked and prodded enough for one day to get the hell out of dodge. I don't have to return until Friday.

If your wondering about next steps we have been getting some insight. Once my nutrophils are in the 1000's (right now they are only 500) I get discharged from the in-patient out-patient center to the strictly out-patient center. I get monitored there weekly but I don't know how long; haven't gotten that far yet. Another milestone is my 60 day work up when they do a CT to measure my mass. That is only a couple weeks away amazingly. I also start radiation in a couple weeks.

Oddly enough all this commotion is coming exactly 1 year from my initial diagnosis and treatments. Dave and I have decided to celebrate this coming March and not begrudge it. We will celebrate that I have fought this cancer for 1 year, had an amazing baby boy, and I am still alive and kicking. I see myself with many more March's to celebrate.