Relay Day & So Much More!

Many of you know that my Relay for Life In The Rain And Wind And Mud is today, but I thought I'd fill you in on some other news while I try to wake up this early, ugly gray morning. Conner had to get up and out early for his SAT this morning, so I think some sort of sixth sense woke me up so I could fuss over him about sharpened pencils and granola bars.

And, today is our SIXTH wedding anniversary, as you can see by the gorgeous burst of spring flowers that arrived yesterday afternoon! As I told Lloyd then, sometimes it doesn't feel at all like we've been married for six years, that our wedding was that long ago...and sometimes, it just feels like forever, not in the bad way, but in the way that it feels like there was just never a time when we weren't together.

Technically, the traditional anniversary gifts for a sixth are iron (traditional) or wood (modern) but I'm pretty happy with flowers all the way around!!

In other news.... I got booted out of chemo this week again because

------>(after several hours of sitting there while Helen tried to get blood from my port - both to do my labs with & because they always test; no blood return equals no meds going into the actual vein - pushing about a dozen syringes of saline thru, making my heart rather fluttery & unsure of just what in hell to do with all of this fluid & thus making me very lightheaded and faint as I lay there waiting for the lab tech to come puncture me in the arm to draw my labs, and for the syringe of CathFlow enzyme to go thru my port, ostensibly clearing it out for the chemo to get in, which didn't actualy work, we found out when it had marinated long enough and she STILL couldn't pull any blood out of it; meanwhile the lab results came back, and after all of that, they discovered)----->

I have severe neutropenia again

------>(this being the shortage of white blood cells; specifically the WBCs known as neutrophils, the "baby" whites which I guess are most important of all)----->

with an overall WBC count of 2.1 (3.2-10.6 =N) & a neutrophil count of 0.3 (1.5-6.5 =N), which is kinda sorta REALLY low. Kopeks. <-------LOLOLOL.
(I left that in for humor. I *typed* "oopsie" and that's what I got. That might be my new swear word. Kopeks!! I wonder what the hell it means...)

ANYWAY......
My oncologist and long-suffering nurses, who could very likely be seen at today's event, would if asked, probably have expressly forbidden me from attending large, publicly germ-ridden events, rain and mud or no rain and mud, but it honestly didn't occur to me to ask. It apparently didn't occur to them to bring it up. Kopeks again! Well, hell, how can it be worse than a house full of rotating teenagers?

Well, I probably should be asking the assorted spare teens (not to mention my own!!) to santize and mask up if necessary, and I should probably be carrying a few masks today, lest a stray oncologist catches sight of me, bundled in my "fight like a girl" long-sleeve tee, appropriate event tee of the hour (I think I have three), "fight like a girl" hoodie, rainproof jacket of some sort and giant rainbow'd golf umbrella. Come to think of it, I should be easy to spot. I'll be the one waddling down the track like like a pregnant goose.

A wet goose.

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Kopeks: 1/100 of a Ruble. I knew I'd heard that word somewhere.