new month, same crap...

ahhh the drive down the alameda that has become so familiar. each time wishing The Dutch Goose was our destination, but sadly it never is...

another day in chemoville is underway.

the past week has been pretty good to trish. she had her four neupogen shots on wed, thurs, fri and sat.

saturday trish went down to santana row for a birthday tea party for the sisters Gann, Carrie and Christina.

on sunday, trish, caden and i headed over to the menlo park farmer's market to pick up some fruits and veggies.. we actually ran into dr. carlson while we were there... its kinda odd.. like when you are kid, and you see your teacher at the grocery store for the first time... you know oncologists need to shop as well, but seeing them outside their habitat, you sometimes gotta do a double take.

trish has been feeling decent, but as you know, the neupogen shots make her really achy. yesterday and today haven't been too bad, but she made it through the week without any advil or alieve.. so she is hanging in there.


so that brings us to today...


8:10am: driving down alameda
8:30am: arrive at the stanford cancer center
9:00am: seated for blood work with nurse sammie
9:20am: blood draw finished, heading downstairs
9:25am: checked in with dr. carlson's front desk
9:35am: in dr. carlson's patient room
10:00am: nurse jan came in to check in on trish. blood counts look promising, but not all the #'s are back yet

the nurses in the infusion center have always been so nice and welcoming..
trish wanted to do a little something to say thank you, so she baked a few dozen lemon poppyseed, blueberry and coffee crumbcake muffins for them last night.



stay tuned... more updates throughout the day


here is a pic from a few minutes ago in dr. carlson's exam room...
trish was flipping through a copy of People, and came across this advertisement....

ya gotta be kidding me







11:00am update
-----------------

we met with dr. carlson and nurse jan and went over the blood work, the previous weeks, the coming weeks, surgery options, surgeon options, etc..

trish's blood counts came back good, and she is good to go for another round of juice today... she tried talking dr. carlson into 3 shots of neupogen a week, but he wasn't having it. i guess we will have to continue with 4..


blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 6.05
is 6.52


red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 28.9
is 29


trish's (and mine) face lit up when we heard dr. carlson say:

"a really wonderful response here"

and

"i think we you are doing fantastic"

its really good to know its workin...


its 11:00am and we are back in the infusion center waiting room....
1.5 hours late for our appointment... think its gonna be a long day

more updates later..



11:15am update
-----------------

seated in the much sought after spot, C5... theeeee prime, numero uno throne. westwardly facing, with windows of a northern exposure.
the sky is blue, the trees green and the chemo clear.

BRIBING THE NURSES WITH MUFFINS APPEARS TO HAVE WORKED :)

nurse nenita began trish on her bottle of wine (benadryl) and will be back to buy her a round of decadrone and pepcid in a bit








more updates later...


2:00pm update
-----------------

12:00pm: predrugs done
12:15pm: began taxol
1:45pm: taxol done, began herceptin

herceptin should take 30 minutes... we should be on our way home no later than 2:30pm.

trish has been catching up on a little sleep over the last couple hours.

the harp lady was back, and kicked off the concert with a fine rendition of Sting's "Fields of Gold". (this isn't "our" harp lady, but if you want to hear fields of gold on the harp, here is your chance)