Monday -- Good Mother's Day, Some Good News and some New Challenges

Trish had a good Mother's Day weekend with Andy and Matt. Trish and Aunt Mary did most of the cooking, but it was a labor of love. Trish made Matt's favorite biscotti and Andy's favorite Decadent French Toast. The French toast recipe comes from a Bed and Breakfast Cookbook I bought for Trish years ago when I still worked for Florida Power and Light, but that book still holds most of our favorite repeat recipes.

While we managed to keep the weekend Dr free -- Trish wasn't feeling so good this morning. They had taken an XRay and CT on Friday and didn't reach any conclusions. Today, they did a CT and UltraSound. Today, the scans were more revealing....They noticed two cysts, which were larger han anything they saw on Friday. They are not sure what to think about this. There are many possibilities. Probably the nicest would be that the cysts were filling with blood and that's why they were getting larger. With the platlets Trish received today, that should stop and they might even go away on their own or at least reduce in size and be harmless. The bottom line is they don't know, so we'll be back tomorrow to visit more doctors, get some specialists consults etc.

I am tired of people telling me I am right. I want someone to tell me I am so dead wrong, missed the big opportunity and can do XXXX. I spoke with a billing insurance specialist today at Hopkins who had told another specialist at Hopkins that we could get Trish on Medicare. After alking to me she said wow - you know your stuff and ou are right....It would be tough even for a sleazy attorney to get Trish on Medicare (primarily because between being diagnosed, put in remission and relapsing, Trish was able to go back to work.....She also confirmed for me that the transplant costs will be about $500,000, so we are already below that in our existing insurance. Thanks to all who have already helped out with the fundraising efforts.

Oh - I promised some good news.... Trish blood counts are up and continue on a slow and steady rise. And Drum roll please... Neutrophils have made an appearance -- 42 to be exact -- not enough to throw a party or go find a biopsy needle, but a nice advance from zero. White cells too are up at a slow and steady but insignificant number of 140. Just to know that the counts are holding and building slowly is a good thing.

I expect to post something late Tuesday afer what promises to be a long day.