Numbers, numbers and more numbers...

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	7.3	13-17	^
Platelets	10	140-375	v
ANC	10	1800-8300	^

Way back in 1969, a rock group by the name of Three Dog Night, recorded a song by Harry Nilsson, titled "One." "This was the first song on Three Dog Night's first album. It was one of 21 US Top 40 hits for the group..."* I have the song on their album "Joy to the World," which is not a Christmas album. If you are a geezer like me, you may remember the lyrics of the first verse:

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one"**

It's true, I think, that one is a lonely number, especially when you are the one, after someone else has gone away, which sometimes happens when the two of them managed to be lonely even when together; hence the second line.  In fact the bridge in this song says:

"It's just no good anymore since you went away
Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday"

Isn't it interesting how different numbers can have special meanings:

1. Loneliness...OR the best!

3. Three on a match is bad luck, but in the Bible it signals completeness, as in the three Persons of the Trinity. 

6. The biblical number assigned to mankind, and the number of days that it took God to create the universe out of nothing!!

7. Lucky number 7 in gambling, but also the number representing God's perfection, and the number of days in the Creation Week, including the seventh day on which God rested. Also the number of days in our own weeks.

13. Bad luck. The number of cards in each suit of a deck of playing cards. And here's one you may not be aware of: the number of Apostles in the New Testament. We usually hear about the 12 Apostles, but after Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord, he took his own life. In order to replenish the ranks, after the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, the remaining 11 Apostles drew lots for a replacement for Judas, who was Matthias. (Acts 1:12-26)

10. Now what's so special about 10? 

Well, think about it for a moment. Our mathematics is based on 10, probably because humans have 10 fingers, which are often the first things we learn to count. One of my favorite satirists, Tom Lehrer, does a song about "New Math," which was a popular math curriculum in the middle of the last century (and I think maybe similar to the Common Core math curriculum of more recent times). In the song, after making the point that New Math's primary tenet was that it is more important to understand what you are doing than to get the right answer, Lehrer sings his way through a math problem as follows:      

342 - 173 =

Listen here, as Lehrer takes you through this relatively simple math problem using New Math. But before you take the time to listen, let me tell you that later in the song, he goes through the same problem using the same method, but this time in what is known in math circles as "Base 8." He explains, "Base eight is just like base ten really - If you're missing two fingers!" OK, go ahead and enjoy the song New Math now. 

Wasn't that fun? Anyway, back to the number 10. It is so common in our culture. If you are like me you are bombarded by ridiculous "surveys" asking you to "Rate your recent experience, when the bomb squad was called to your home, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 means your home was not damaged and 1 means you have purchased a tent and moved to the park."

There was a 1979 movie, "10",  starring Dudley Moore, who became infatuated with a married woman played by Bo Derek, who in his mind, was a "10," everything a woman ought to be, except that she was married...to someone else. 

We go to the bowling alley to knock down 10 pins. There are 10 number buttons on our phones. 

Yes, 10 is a familiar number, but I want to show you that it is important to me in another way you may not have thought about. If you will kindly look at today's Box Score, you will find the number 10 appears twice. First it appears as today's Platelet count, down from 27 on Monday. BUT, and it's a big BUT (not because of the pants it is wearing), because 10 is the threshold below which platelet transfusion is indicated. In other words, I am right in the perfect spot to receive a bag of "Golden Beauties" as my friend Brian, who is also battling AML, and I like to call platelets. That is good news, because it is likely to keep me out of the ER on the weekend. 

The second 10 in the Box Score is in the ANC row. If you notice, the Standard Range for ANC is 1800-8300. So, why is 10 special when it is so far out of the normal range? Here's the answer. After my most recent round of chemo, my ANC hit 0 (zero) on February 22nd, and now 6 days later it is up to 10. After my last previous round of chemotherapy, my ANC hit 0 (zero) and stayed there for fourteen days before it began to recover. To me that's progress, especially since ANC is the number that determines a) do I need to quarantine, b) do I need to take certain medicines that can have some rather nasty side effects, c) can I have fresh (raw) fruits and veggies. If ANC is above 1000, the answers are no, no and yes. If it is below 1000, the answers are yes, yes and no. So, you can see why any progress toward that magic 1000 is, well, magical for me. 

If I may cut to the chase, I am scheduled for both a bag of Golden Beauties and a bag of packed red blood cells (RBCs), or as Brian and I like to say "Red Ryders," tomorrow morning. That should carry me through the weekend without a trip to the ER. Please feel free to pray it all works out for the good.

*https://www.songfacts.com/facts/three-dog-night/one 

**https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/three-dog-night/one