Things just keep on changing

BOX SCORE	11/22/24
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	13.2	13-17	^
Platelets	177	140-375	^
ANC	2810	1800-8300	v

When I reported for duty at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Naval Dental Clinic, fondly known to the inventors of military-speak as NavDenClinCamPen, I had just finished my twentieth consecutive year in formal education. To wit: eight years in elementary school, four in high school, four in undergrad college, and four at the University of Oregon Dental School (UODS). Now, to my knowledge, that name (UODS) was about in the middle of the string of names of dear old Alma Mater: 

North Pacific College began in 1893 as the Tacoma College of Dental Surgery, moving to Portland in 1899, where it took the name North Pacific Dental College.  A year later the school merged with Oregon College of Dentistry.  In 1908 it dropped the word “dental” from its name, and in 1924 it added the words “of Oregon.” (Source)

Tacoma College of Dental Surgery (1892-1899)
Oregon College of Dentistry (1898-1899)
North Pacific College of Dentistry (1899-1908)
North Pacific College of Oregon (1908-1945)...

After being renamed as North Pacific College, that school merged into the then University of Oregon Medical School in 1945 (Source) 

In 1954, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the dental college was a subdivision of the higher education system.^[2][I believe it was then known as University of Oregon Dental School until...]

...in 1974 the State of Oregon merged the institutions located on Marquam Hill [including medical, dental and nursing schools] into the University Hospital independent of the University of Oregon. (Source)

[The name became] University of Oregon Health Sciences Center (1974-1981)^[1] [followed by] Oregon Health Sciences University (1981-2001)[1] (Source) 

I couldn't find documentation for when the name changed to Oregon Health and Science University, but that is the current moniker of this sprawling teaching and research center, and I suspect that name became official in 2001. 

Don't you love rabbit trails? And don't you love changes? Sometimes, it's hard to keep up! The point I started to make is that round about September of 1971, when I had been practicing dentistry at NavDenClinCamPen for a couple of months, I began to feel that there was something really important that I had forgotten to do. Eventually, it dawned on me that every September for the previous 20 years, I had enrolled in classes somewhere. After a little while that realization relieved my mind of the idea that I had failed to live up to some commitment, but it also made me realize that suddenly I was a working stiff, just like everyone else! 

Now why did I bore you with all of that history? Well, it's because Jill and I are facing a similar situation. We met with Dr. Brow today. She is back from her maternity leave, which was a smashing success, judging by the pictures of baby Charlotte...cute as the dickens. It was a little difficult to get Dr. Brow on the subject of my medical situation, because we were having such fun chatting about her kids and our kids and grandkids. 

When we got down to business, she reviewed my most recent lab results, stating that they were all great. I asked her how often I should be having lab tests, and she told us that, unless there is something unforeseen, I will need to have lab tests once a month, for now, and to be seen by an oncology provider (M.D. or N.P.) every other month.

She encouraged us to go out to a restaurant or spend a couple of days at the beach! She even green-lighted my consuming reasonable quantities of beer! Although she knows I am a home brewer, she doesn't know that I have three 5 gallon kegs of fresh beer in my home brew pub. And now that we are cleared for getting together with small groups of people (who are free of symptoms of contagion), I will finally be able to serve them to friends!

So, the situation Jill and I are dealing with at this point is that we have been mostly quarantined for the better part of five years (pandemic + leukemia = 5 years), and it is going to involve some shifting of paradigms for us to think in terms of living like normal folks. Now, we are not in a position to throw caution to the winds. We need to avoid big crowds. I am not allowed to do gardening. Stuff like that. At one year post transplant most of those restrictions will go away, but for now, discretion must reign. But guess what. We are more than half way there! 

The bottom line here is that we are feeling rather celebrational. What will it be like not to have to go to the medical office every week? Will we miss our friends in the medical field? (We already do miss some of the wonderful nurses who have taken such good care of us.) What will it be like eventually to have annual checkups? Is that even a thing? Wow! So much to [re]learn! 

In the meantime, we are thanking the Lord for bringing us to this point...a point that at times has seemed unobtainable. His mercies are truly new every morning. 

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)