When questions come to mind . . .

Good morning!

Slept pretty well last night. I'm on a different floor this time around and the 'rules' are a little different. On the 5th floor it was pretty much routine to be woken up every other hour or so to take blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate. On THIS floor they take vital signs at 11:00 pm (called the midnight check, mind you) and 6:00 am leaving a luxiourious 7 hours to sleep as I am able! I started dosing off at 9:30 last night so I'm feeling pretty refreshed this morning.

I did have spinal tap number five yesterday. Again, this one was under an x-ray machine (flouroscopy) to aid the precise placement of the needle. If they can all go the way yesterday's went then the remaining 7 spinal taps will be a peice-o-cake. They took a fresh sample of my spinal fluid to be certain that the cancer is still not in my central nervous system (another, continuing good sign). They also injected a chemo therapy drug, Methotrexate I believe, into my spine as a preventative measure.

I got a surprise visit from the physician at Hopkins who is taking the lead on my case. I thought she was still on vacation--she's from Ireland and was visiting family. Instead, yesterday was her first day back and she stopped by when she learned I was in. Dr. Connolly is a refreshing change to my prior experiences with doctors. She will sit and talk, she answers all questions in a direct fashion and without relying on jargon to do so. She doesn't back away from questions that ask for her opinion or to 'make a prognosis'.

Yesterday, I told her about the CT Scan showing shrinking lymph nodes from my fever-based admission while she was in Ireland. She had heard of the results but hadn't actually seen the scans yet. That's when a question occurred to me: "Of course this is encouraging, but the scary part is what is happening in my bone marrow. Is there something to infer or a prediction to be made on what is happening in the marrow based on these early results?" I asked.

Dr. Connolly replied that while it would certainly take another bone marrow biopsy (joy!) to be certain of anything, the shrinking lymph nodes would, in most cases, point toward either status quo or even probably some early success in the bone marrow. She added that it would be extremely unlikely that the treatments would have an effect on the lymph nodes and that somehow cancer in the bone marrow would flourish.

I continue to be encouraged and it looks like I'll be returning home Monday or Tuesday next week to await the RBC count plunge!