As Advertised...

By dinner time, Mary was saying she felt much better and, in fact, prepared dinner without my help. This wasn't a huge task because Ingrid had dropped off her "famous chicken noodle soup" which we are sure was originally developed by ancient gnomes living deep in the Black Forest just outside of Munich. Ingrid makes the soup at home, packages it up and delivers--what more could one ask? Preparation involves cooking the noodles and then mixing in the good stuff. Thank you, Ingrid!

Mary didn't tell me until late last night that she had talked to the Surgeon's Nurse (SN). The SN has standing orders from the surgeon to monitor Mary's chart and system issued emails weekly and report to him regularly about Mary's progress. In other words, SN reports that it appears the surgeon has adopted Mary which make Mary particularly happy. [Original text and image censored.]

The SN hadn't looked at this weeks blood tests, transfusion info, etc. as of the phone call yesterday so she did while Mary was on the line. The most notable comment is that Mary's blood test numbers on Monday were very close to the point where they slap a patient into the hospital and put them in infectious isolation i.e., "The Boy in the Bubble" treatment.

Avoiding infection is the primary goal while her system in compromised by the chemo. Mary cannot eat any fresh fruit or veggie unless it is either peeled or cooked. No lettuce or tomato in sandwiches or hamburgers, no grapes, apples or pears unless they have been peeled or cooked. Cooked grapes? I don't think so. Peeled grapes? I love that woman very much but no way. No crowds in enclosed places--one of the reasons she did not go into the drug stores with me last Saturday, the other being she just didn't have the strength.

Are they going to put her on a breath mask? Heck, we don't know. As I write this, we don't even know what the plan is going forward. Hopefully today we'll get some answers to the questions and set new plans.

I do want to thank Mary's taxi team. We have drivers for every chemo trip under the old plan. We'll do a re-plan as soon as we know what it is!