Once Again, No News

For reasons that no one can explain (or we haven't figured out how to ask the right questions yet), Jon's stem cell numbers are not getting better. When he compares them to the same time 11 years ago, they are 40 times smaller than when they collected back then (if the units are the same, and we just don't know that either) and they have not budged.  His body is not cooperating.  They say that if nothing happens tomorrow, they will take it to another level with a very expensive drug that mobilizes stem cells every time, but it sounds kind of dire to Jon. It sounds dire because it is hard to visualize what that would do to a body.  We will cross that bridge when we get to it.

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If this were late December, as was originally scheduled, we wouldn't really care if we were exiled in an apartment in Baltimore. But we had kind of made ourselves feel better with the idea that we could go home this weekend for a few days, in between the pheresis (collection) and the next steps (ugh).  Now it seems less likely that we will get to go home, and that is an adjustment. We cannot know what will happen tomorrow, but it doesn't look good for an escape.

It's a different sort of an endurance test, this part before there is even any pain and suffering.  Jon is looking pretty scruffy because he doesn't feel like shaving (his hair is all supposed to fall out eventually anyway). Yesterday we took a little outing and drove down to Fells Point -- which is only a half mile south, I thought it was at least a mile -- and found a Yemen and Gulf Restaurant where we got some Middle Eastern wraps for our picnic.  The sandwiches were so big that they lasted through two meals. 

I am remembering the various novels where people are stuck inside for one reason or another.  A Gentleman in Moscow comes to mind -- the main character lives in a hotel for decades, eating in the restaurants, talking to the staff, making friends with the guests.  This is nowhere near that scale, in terms of time, but this does feel like exile, missing all these beautiful spring days.

At home they are working in the greenhouse, Benjamin is plugging along on the Horse Barn when he isn't being diverted by a new bridge-building project, some of the ginger has been started, and two of the tractors that we rely on in Vienna are not starting.  Things are progressing as usual, which is reassuring. Yesterday I did a FaceTime interview with a new worker, along with Ciara who was there in real life, and that was a good diversion.  I think we have hired everyone we need for both farms by now.

If I can figure out how to get this picture loaded, it is the view from our north-facing window. The big brick building is the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and that little tiny person on the southwest corner of the block, waiting for the light to change, is Jon coming home from another morning sitting in a chair, waiting for news.