Day 307 BMT 97

Good Evening,

Here is the latest. Since we last posted, we have experienced some downs and ups. First, Rita's numbers sort of crashed for a few days. During this time, the doctors told us not to worry but, as I'm sure you can understand, we were more than a little concerned. When we got to the clinic visit on Friday 5/20/11, Rita was neutropenic and it was questionable as to whether or not we would be able to come home for the Memorial Day weekend. We were sort of bummed out at this time. Our next clinic visit was Wednesday 5/25/11 and we knew that if the numbers didn't improve, they would probably tell us we couldn't go home. After Rita had her blood taken and we were waiting for the results, Rita decided that we should reherse our lines so that we could convince the doctors to let us go home. So, we spent at least a half an hour going over what I would say if the doctor said so and so and what Rita would say if they said something else. We acutally had a pretty good script all ready to deliver. Well, the NP came in and brought Rita's numbers up on the computer. Much to our amazement, the nmbers had improved to a point that we had not seen for over a month. All of our rehersal time was for nothing - to make a long story short, they told us to go home and that they would see us next Tuesday.

So we packed up and went home for the holiday weekend. It was a great time. Selpt in our own bed, had quality time with family and friends and then drove back out to Buffalo yesterday. Today started early with a 6:30 AM visit to phlebotomy and then an intrethecal lumbar chemo infusion and then a bone marrow biopsy. Rita tolerated all of this like the champion she is. Her blood chemistry is excellent and her WBC and ANC is also excellent. We will now wait until we get the results from the bone marrow biopsy to see if we can come home for good on Friday. I'll be sure to let you know how all of this goes. Rita has a couple of more tests tomorrow (bone density and PFT) and then, its pretty much a waiting game until we get the bone marrow biopsy results.

We hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend - we sure did with being close to our family and friends.

Thanks to all for the continued prayers, Rita & Dave

P.S. Please excuse spelling and grammar - I didn't check this as usual.