Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets, Oh My!

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 12.9 13-17 ^ Platelets 186 140-375 ^ ANC 3740 1800-8300 ^ Ferritin 1311 My goal <1000 ^ CD4 Cells 209 My goal > 200 v Vicissitude. This is a word I know well but don’t use in conversation much.  I like the sound of it, but Jill often tells me I use too many words with which some people are not familiar. In case you are not conversant with “vicissitude,” it reminds me of the old joke about the elevator operator who, when asked how he liked his job, said, “It has its ups and downs.”  Here’s a little quote from Merriam-Webster.com: "Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better," wrote British theologian Richard Hooker in the 16th century. That observation may shed some light on  vicissitude , a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to an instance of it, but that often refers specifically to hardship or difficulty brought about by change. To survive "the vicissitudes of life...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 12.2 13-17 ^ Platelets 176 140-375 ^ ANC 3470 1800-8300 v Ferritin 1060 My goal <1000 v CD4 Cells 240 My goal > 200 For most of our marriage, Jill and I have perpetuated a tradition (habit?) that I brought into our union. Once upon a time in the mid 1970s, I had a side hustle working for a professor at my dental school alma mater, the University of Oregon Dental School (UODS)*. My main gig was trying to establish a private dental practice in the suburbs of Portland. I had been a top student in dental school, but I had labored under the false illusion that learning to do dentistry well was the primary requisite to executing a successful business delivering dental care. Little did I know at the time that knowing virtually nothing about business practices might hamstring my attempts to keep a business afloat, no matter how good the product of said business might be.  And that brings me back to the side hustle. During the phas...