Hi there, everyone!

Today was a great day for so many reasons, but let’s just start with my counts. My white count is 2.1, and my neutrophils are 1.2! Tomorrow I probably won’t be neutropenic so I can actually go out!!! WOOHOO!! Once my neutrophils reach 1.5, I am no longer considered neutropenic which is a wonderful thing! By the way, under “pages”, on the right side of the blogsite, you’ll find a key for blood numbers so you can easily refer to it when I talk about my counts. Ronnie also included the speech I gave last year to Inova blood donors (don’t worry–I don’t go on forever! I think it’s 15 minutes long or maybe 10). Hope you enjoy it! I do get a little sappy at the end…I figured that way everyone would donate more. hahahaha just kidding…it was an emotional speech to give, so I was pretty proud I didn’t tear up until the end! Hope you can still understand me.

Getting on with my day, I enjoyed visiting with Arjun and Brenda, AND Aunt Bitsy!! Yup, she surprised me yesterday when I was in short stay at the hospital. She’s staying through the weekend, and I’m glad my numbers are up so we can head out to our restaurant of choice, IHOP, and I can put all the weight on that I lost while being neutropenic (it’s not much, just five pounds)! Then, this evening, my mom, dad, Aunt Bitsy and I headed over to have dinner with our friends, Norma and Steve (I can write your first names in the blog, but it’s too hard to break away from calling you Mr. and Mrs. Tuminaro since I grew up doing that!). We enjoyed some delicious homemade lasagna, as well as salad, garlic bread, chocolate cake and…………………… wine!!! I asked the nurse practitioner if it was OK if I had a little wine, and she looked for any reactions with my Lexapro (that’s the one that says “no alcohol” on it), and she said she thought a little bit should be fine. She did say I shouldn’t “get stoned”, so that was quite a disappointment, but I’ll adjust. hahahaha Thank you for the wonderful dinner and the company, Mr. and Mrs. Tuminaro (there I go again…it’s habit, I can’t help it!)!! It was a very special night.

Tuesday night, my mom, the dogs and I went to Laura and Tiso’s house, and we stayed out on their beautiful porch all night long!! It was such a gorgeous night, they had the fire going in their cool chimenea, and Laura made chicken cacciatore, which she didn’t like, but the rest of us did. That too was a special night, and I took some pics to share with you…actually, I have lotsa pics, so I’ll go ahead and put them in a gallery right now before I forget. By the way, if you want to enlarge the picture, click on the photo, then click again on the next photo that comes up.

Short stay went really well yesterday. I had wonderful nurses, and despite the fact that I was there from 11:15 AM until 10 PM, it was very pleasant. I took a couple naps, watched the Olympics, visited with my mom, Aunt Bitsy and Lori, solved one and a half Sudoku puzzles (it only took me almost two hours to do it–those are freakin’ challenging–and I was doing the so-called “easy” ones), caught up on some e-mailing, and refueled with platelets and blood. While I was there, I got a call from the Pete Gross House (check it out here: http://www.fhcrc.org/patient/support/pghouse/), where I’ve been on the wait list for an apartment in Seattle, and they have an apartment that will be ready for me when we get there! It’s apartment 606, which I think sound like lucky numbers to me…now, if it had been 666, that would be a different story!!!! Anyway, it’s a big relief to know we don’t have to find a hotel while we’re waiting for an apartment to open up.

Anyway, this week has been a great one, and I’m looking forward to a wonderful weekend. I might get a break from the doctor’s office this weekend too! I love talking to everyone there, but it does get tiring going back and forth, and it’s always a a good sign if I don’t need to go.

I was cracking up today because Aunt Bitsy said that the big patechia by my collarbone looks like a hickey (or “sucker bite”, as she calls it)….I never even thought about it, but it does! You can see it very easily, but I figured…hey, just let people wonder! It sounds like a lot more fun than just plain old patechia!

OK, I’m gettin’ sleepy, and I’m sure you’re getting tired of reading, so I’ll sign off. Hope everyone is doing well!! I’ll write again soon.