A Beautiful Sunday

We are having that wonderful fall weather with a crystal clear blue sky and temperatures hanging in the mid- to high- 70's (26C). We had lunch at the Purple Onion with Ingrid and MaryR for the first time in an age yesterday. It was good to get together again and catch up on all the doings and events in everyones' life.

We are seeing a progression from Mary's overall health that is not flat or up. On Tuesday, Mary had the transfusion. By Thursday, she was in the kitchen baking cookies and feeling really good! Since Thursday, each day has been a bit of a downer from the day before. The primary manifestations are low energy and muscle pain in her back both of which show up in the late afternoon and by bedtime she is in in real back pain as well as just dragging.

Our non-professional theory is that the benefit of the transfusion is tapering off while the bone marrow is not fully recovered and creating new red blood cells after the trashing by the Gemzar. Mary has instructions from the staff at Stanford and she will be reporting her status as appropriate to the Oncology Nurse (ON) this week.

When we see the Oncologist on Monday, one of the topic is clearly going to be the benefit versus the downside of this chemotherapy given how it has attacked Mary's red blood producing ability. More later.