Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets, Oh My!

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.2 13-17 ^ Platelets 6 140-375 v ANC 10 1800-8300 v You must take the "A" train To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem Thus begin the lyrics to "Take the 'A' Train," the signature song of Duke Ellington, the jazz legend, and his band. The tune was written by  Billy Strayhorn in 1939, and the lyrics used by the Ellington band were later written by 20 year old  Joya Sherrill , while listening to the song on her radio in Detroit. Her father, an activist, arranged for her to meet with Ellington, who was so impressed with her style that he hired her as a vocalist for the band.* To me that song has always sugges...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.0 13-17 ^ Platelets 33 140-375 v ANC 450 1800-8300 v What a joy it is to see spring peeking out around here. The day before I came home from the hospital, the sun appeared from behind a cloud, and we were able to go for a walk around the Club Sunnyside campus. This activity was not without incident.  After my escapade on Thursday, I was fitted with a heart monitor, "Just in case." The idea was that, if I had an "incident," while I was sleeping, it would immediately come to the attention of the hospital staff. I noticed, when I was sent out for my second CT scan, the nurse contacted "Telemetry" (I just lo...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 9.1 13-17 v Platelets 98 140-375 v ANC 33,930 1800-8300 v Heather Garbutt has been murdered.       They found her in her cell, where she had been killed in a very unpleasant way. Chris wouldn't go into details, but it involved knitting needles.      She left a note in one of her drawers:     THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME. ONLY CONNIE JOHNSON CAN HELP ME NOW. Hello, Tom, can you hear me?  Why are there suddenly half a dozen people in my room?  Jill was just reading me something about Heather Garbutt and Connie Johnson. My chair is reclined, and they are attaching wires to ...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.1 13-17 v Platelets 128 140-375 v ANC 43,520 1800-8300 v It's day three of my stay at Club Sunnyside. So far, so good. I have had no serious side effects from the treatments, and I am feeling good. Today is hump day in my treatment. By the end of the day, I will be 60% finished with the chemo for this round.  Today is also Maundy Thursday on the Christian calendar.  It is the fifth day of Holy Week, preceded by Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday) and followed by Good Friday . [2] "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum , or commandment, reflecting Jesus' words "I give you a new commandment." [3] T...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 9.0 13-17 ^ Platelets 163 140-375 v ANC 3260 1800-8300 ^ I believe the first time I heard the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," was during my sailing days. There was a crowd of sailors that hung around together pretty much every weekend. One of them, Fred, had a bit of a hippy mentality. He had a degree in mechanical engineering, but he only worked about three days a week. He figured there was no reason to break his back earning more money than he actually needed to keep body and soul together.  Fred had an old boat that was in reasonably good condition when I met him, but little by little it looked o...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.1 13-17 v Platelets 175 140-375 ^ ANC 2560 1800-8300 v When I was working as a dentist, and especially during the time when I was clinic director with a group of six or seven dentists in my charge, not to mention a staff of clerks, assistants and dental hygienists, I found it pretty easy to get distracted from my main responsibility: giving the best possible care I was capable of to my patients. I am happy to report that after thirty-two years of clinical practice, I never removed the wrong tooth, I never caused any serious harm to a patient, I never had a patient die in my chair. The closest I came to that was when a patient had a ...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.2 13-17 ^ Platelets 132 140-375 ^ ANC 3760 1800-8300 v When Jill and I got married, I had some really old laundry appliances, and she had an older but still useful washer. We lived in "my" house for the first year, and then we sold that house and built "our" house. We sold my old laundry appliances with the house and purchased a new dryer that matched Jill's washer for the new house. After eight years in that house, we moved to Dallas, and having found no house that fit our needs on the market, we built another house.  The old/new laundry "pair" moved to Dallas with us and we happily did our laundry, wi...