T+69 Another happy ending!

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	11.4	13-17	v
Platelets	147	140-375	v
ANC	4870	1800-8300	v

In our culture, we like happy endings. It used to be that Hollywood films did not portray violence without, in the end, the bad guys getting their just deserts. I have to admit that was often when the good guys shot the bad guys, which isn't so cool, but nevertheless justice of sorts was done. We still like this theme, although it seems to me that from the few contemporary (meaning in the past 15 years) movies that I have seen (both of them) things have progressed from somebody getting rubbed out with a snub nosed .38 to massive explosions of bad guy spaceships (and of course, their crews) blowing up in outer space at the wrong end of a laser beam.  I'm still trying to figure out how all of those flames occur in space, where there is no oxygen to support combustion. I guess I just need to take to heart what somebody told me years ago when I noticed an incongruity of this sort: "Tom, you have to suspend your disbelief." 

But I digress. In my last post I explained how our car had been acting up and throwing "check engine" light codes. I am happy to report that I have now assembled all of the parts and tools to perform a repair job on the #4 cylinder, which was throwing a P0304 "misfire in cylinder 4" code. 

Yesterday was clinic visit day, so we jumped in the Ford and prepared to go. Jill started the engine, and then she said, "Hmm. That little light is not on," referring to the check engine light. Wait, what? Oh, well, it was time to go, so off we went. After my appointment, to which I will return presently, we got in the car to head home to our Hobbit Hole basement apartment. Again the check engine light didn't remain lit after the car started up. It's a miracle! The car fixed itself. (I have to say that, given the choice, I would rather have a car that fixes itself than one that drives itself. Those things scare me!!) Another happy ending.

There's another old saying I learned many years ago from a guy named Fred: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Fred didn't fix much of anything, including doing prescribed routine maintenance, as long as it still functioned...a little. Anyhoo, at this juncture I have decided to wait and see what happens, before dismantling the engine in the landlord's driveway. (By the bye, don't mention this to Jill, but I actually staged this whole business so I would have an excuse to purchase a 13 mm X 1/4" drive deep socket for my socket wrench set. I mean that baby cost almost two and a half bucks!) 

Now where was I? Oh, yes. We went to the clinic yesterday for a dressing change on my PICC line, a blood draw, and a visit with Dr. Meyers. All went very smoothly, including the fact that my magnesium was in the "normal" range for the third straight visit. It is still lower than Dr. Meyers would like it to be, so I got a bag of IV magnesium, but we are making progress. By next Monday, I will have been on a higher dose of oral magnesium for ten days, and just maybe, I won't need IV magnesium. Fingers crossed.

Later in the day, I got a call from the pharmacy. At each blood draw, my blood level of Tacrolimus, the anti-rejection drug that I take, is measured. Then the pharmacy calls to tell me what dosage I should take for the next week. Yesterday's level was high enough that I am instructed to reduce my dosage by one pill per week. Another happy ending!

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. (Proverbs 21:15)