Chemo Round 2 Day 23

Merry Christmas everybody! The reason I am writing this post so late is that I got to go home today! My infectious disease doctor came in at 6 AM and said that since my temperature had been OK, he thought I could go home if my other doctors agreed. My counts came back and were not up as much as we had hoped so I was concerned. My hemoglobin had actually gone down a little, my platelet count was about the same and my neutrophil count was actually still less than 200. When my oncologist came in, he said I could go home if I followed several rules. I had to go straight home and stay indoors except for lab work until my counts got better . I had to have blood drawn today so that if I need a transfusion tomorrow they can have the blood ready by the time I get to Springfield. I have to have my blood counts checked at 8 AM tomorrow to be sure they are going up. I also cannot have any visitors till my counts get better which also means my kids cannot have anyone over either till then. I agreed to all of those rules without a problem. He came in about 11 AM and I was on my way home by 1 PM.

When I got home, I helped finish wrapping Christmas presents and we had a big lunch at 3PM. Teresa usually works on things the day before and the day of the big meal. She obviously did not do any of that ahead of time until she knew I was going to come home this year. Once I got the go ahead she worked like crazy to get our big meal done. Kim came over and helped her get things done. They worked miracles and we had a great meal! We had turkey and ham, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes with gravy. We had vegetables, salad, jell-o and lots more. It was a wonderful meal and was especially good since all the kids and my grandson were here.

After dinner we read the Christmas story, then opened up presents and visited for awhile. It was great to be home for Christmas. Tomorrow I need to call Chicago and change my appointment to next week after I get my blood drawn. I am sure it will be another good day.
I will put more information on the blog tomorrow when I know more.

I hope you had as good a day as I did! God blessed my family and me and your prayers all helped. Thank you and have a great holiday season!

Doc