DAY 8 - 010307

Word of the day is POOPED! Not much sleep in room 105 last night. David had a nice new sounding cough that kept us wondering if we were going to run over to the hospital or tough it out. At 4:30 am and no danger signs, (high fever, chills, my head exploding) we decided we no longer had the strength to run anywhere and stuck it out. We headed over to the hospital for check in around 3:00 and they were okay with his vitals. Not so okay with his cough. So they have added another antibiotic and some heavy duty cough medicine. Our nurse Cindy said the cough medicine was to quiet David long enough for us both to get some sleep. She had me at quiet! I couldn’t run to CVS fast enough.

Meanwhile, they are testing David’s blood each day now to check the white cell count. We’re now watching for harvest time. It could be as early as Friday but more likely Sunday or Monday. I have a bet going with Cindy our nurse that it will be Friday and she thinks Sat. The winner gets a Dunkin Donuts coffee. By the way - Cindy slaughters moose in her spare time. No, I’m not kidding. She takes great pride in this. She and her whole family hunt and slaughter moose. She's a tough woman and you don’t want to mess with her. She’s a wonderful nurse. I’m behind her when she’s working on David.

Counting the minutes till our arms are around Jayme. Emily joins us on Sunday or Monday to complete the hug.

Thank you all for the notes and updates on your lives each day. It makes me feel like I’m not so far away.

[Geek Update: Now that I'm publishing Robbi's updates in the AM, there may be some repeated info. Hey - I'm new at this game, we'll work it out.]

[Patient Update: WOW those cough medicines are really good. I think I slept more in one nite than in the previous 3.
When Cindy assessed my status yesterday, a key question was - how much time am I spending in bed. I hadn't realized that my recline-time has really increased. I'm on the bed or in a reliner chair for more than 1/2 of my day... much more. Robbi is good at getting me out to "air out my ass". That is the medicine she has used to get all of us healled faster than most.

The fact that I'm up at 5:30am and still working on my stuff at nearly 8am is testimony to the fact that I am at least mentally alert.

I really appreciate the emails that a few have sent. You are so kind and encouraging - more than I can express. I forward your comments to Robbi, as well. If you prefer to email rather than comment to the blogs, that's cool. I'm doing well with replying, so keep them coming! - David]

~ Robbi