3/1/11 A Dilemma for Us! Stay or Go Home!

Joe continues to take the two strong antibiotics and one anti-fungal medication but so far there has been no noticeable difference in his cough nor his congestion. Today we had a follow-up appointment with the Infectious Disease Clinic where we saw a PA. She conferred with Dr. Torres and they both concur that it is too soon to notice a difference. The various tests last week showed no bacterial infection and it takes weeks longer to determine if it is a fungal infection. The PA said that Dr. Torres is leaning more towards that it is a fungal and that they medication they prescribe should eliminate it. The PA told us to come back in two weeks for a follow up. The blood test today showed that Joe's platelets dramatically dropped from a good 180 on 2/18 to only 86 today. The RBC and WBC remain stable. We are pleased that Joe's hematocrit is now 32.1 which is the highest it has been since 12/2/10. Joe is not in need of any transfusions so that is also positive news.

After our appointment we went over to the Lymphoma department to get some prescriptions ordered that Joe was running down on. Even though Romaguera nor Goley was there, another PA assisted us with that request. A light bulb went on inside my head that we should see Dr Romaguera to get his input after all the lab results from last week. Infectious Disease wants us to wait another two and half weeks to consider starting chemo again. The idea of staying in Houston in a small efficiency apartment with just taking meds is too much for Joe and me. The room is already shrinking in our minds. It is not so bad if you are going forward but I feel that we may be going backwards. It has been a whole month since Joe had his last chemotherapy and if we need to wait another 3 weeks that would make it almost 2 months without chemo. It concerns me that that huge gap that we would have lost time on fighting the Mantle Cell Lymphoma. If we hold off that long, will the MCL lift up its ugly head again and then we would be back to square one which would be a huge set back and be hugely discouraging. We will ask Romaguera if Joe can go ahead and start the last rounds of a and b and if not, then could we go home for three weeks and come back for chemo. Would Joe be in any danger? What about all three of his immunoglobulin counts being below normal? Why does Joe's White Blood Cells remain very high at 61.6? Our appointment with Romaguera is at 3:30 PM CST on Wednesday so maybe we will start driving home on Thursday.

Over the last few days Joe had one morning where he was depressed. I was successful in getting him out of that funk by getting him outside for a walk and watching the very funny movie, "Ruthless People." The forest walk on the Memorial Park Trails was a bit more than what we bargained for. We took the purple trail and our intent was to walk for a maximum of 50 minutes. Well, it felt like we were lost since we kept walking, and walking and seemed like we were getting further and further away. It was not good that the sun was starting to set. Joe was getting tired and Max was panting a good bit. I kept asking other trail blazers which way was out. They told us to stay on the purple trail which must had been the longest trail in the forest. Finally we saw a clear opening which the high tension electrical poles were. Joe wanted to go left and I led the way and went right. I had no idea where we would end up. I suppose we walked another mile before we saw cars and followed the lot to a road. Amazing to us, our car was only a short distance away. Joe was so glad that I did not take his advise. Our 50 minute walk turned out to be on hour and a half. Joe was so happy to be back in the car and Max was too! I was so worried about Joe that I kept turning around to make sure that he was still following me. I offered to stop and have him rest which he only did one time. He was a real trouper! After we got back to the apartment he said he felt tired but good and was happy that we got outside and walked like we did. His depression episode was gone and the rest of the weekend he stayed upbeat.

Some of the things we did this past weekend was to see the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Parade in Downtown Houston. I made the decision to drive downtown and thankfully it worked out wonderfully. We were able to get parking in a parking garage that was only two blocks from the parade route. I had purchased some cheap fold em up chairs and found a perfect location to watch the parade which was on top of steps where there was a landing with plenty of room so nobody was blocking our view. The temperatures were very comfortable with clouds above. We watched the parade for nearly two hours. Joe actually was entertained and did not complain one time of being bored. The chairs made him very comfortable.

On Sunday we went to church at St Philips Presbyterian Church around the corner again. The service had a huge classical music presentation that was nice but Joe nor I are fond of classical opera type of singing.

We have spent much of our time resting and watching TV. We enjoyed watching the Oscars though it was a bit boring. Billy Crystal is the King of Oscar hosts and I hope he decides to come back for future Oscars.

Both Joe and I enjoy watching America Idol together since we find it entertaining. Tonight the 12 guys sang and I thought Durbin (the rocker) and Scotty (the baritone country singer) were terrific. The 12 girls perform on Wednesday night.

Ciao!