It Just Keeps Getting Better

Today Jon felt so much better that he said, as he was sitting in the chair waiting for the blood test results, "I am ready to go home." He knew, without any numbers back yet, that he was on the way back up.  The nurses were excited to see the results and kept refreshing the results page, knowing it would be good news. The question was: how good.  

They had already changed his schedule, even before he got in there, ending his daily appointments on Friday. They knew that he is making very good progress.  They see this all the time, both the bad and the good. They say you never know when someone comes in, which it will be. 

So his white blood counts are at 1.04 (also called over 1000), his neutrophils have bounced all the way to 0.45 and his platelets are still hanging low at 1.2.  But all he needed was some potassium pills and one more Neupogen shot and we were on our way.

Tomorrow will be the day that tells them just how quickly he can expect to be set free.  They anticipate that he will have Wednesday off altogether, another appointment on Thursday and the class on how to behave when he gets out.  It all depends on the platelets. They may stay low for a while, and that will keep us here for a little longer. But Jon feels so good that I describe him as "bouncing off the walls," which is of course a huge exaggeration. 

For a couple of minutes yesterday, Jon said he had caught up with all his programming work. That didn't last long, but it shows that he has been working steadily. He never catches up. 

You all know Jon and you know how stoic and tough he is. You might not know what he is like when he suddenly finds that he feels healthy.  He is not giddy but he is so relaxed and happy. I know you are smiling when you imagine this.

I keep thinking of new images that describe this whole process -- remember the very long time on the train. It feels like it took us months to get these marbles lined up so they could roll down the chute. They kept moving off in unexpected directions and they had to be collected up, over and over. But finally they were all ready to drop, and they just went straight on down without flying off to the side.  It was easy to imagine that the whole thing would be just as fraught as the beginning, but no.  And the people at Hopkins knew that there was no predicting -- we just had to keep going.

Tomorrow I will share my idea about the Leftovers Club. 

Comments

  1. Cookie MandellApril 25, 2022 at 7:23 PM

    This is all such good news. And, yes, I'm seeing Jon's quiet smile in my head. :)

    ReplyDelete

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