Day Sixteen

We saw Dr. Chen yesterday. It was all good news: David’s white blood cell counts are 9.9, well within the reference range of 4.5 to 11. His red cell counts remain a bit low, but steady. Next Tuesday David will see Jess Driscoll, the nurse practitioner, which is a good sign that he is doing well and doesn’t require Dr. Chen’s constant attention. He will have a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday to determine whether or not the leukemia is in remission and also whether or not the bone marrow is being populated by Sam’s stem cells.

David moves slowly and gets tired easily, but he is able to move around the house, make himself a sandwich, go for short walks, and be home alone. In fact, Dr. Chen advised us to take our two week vacation, which we had planned months ago. On July 17^th we’ll fly to Salt Lake City, drive to Fort Benton, Montana, for a Hazen/Holmes family reunion. (It’s the 80^th birthday and 60^th wedding anniversary of both my Uncle Herb and his wife, Aunt Judy.) My 91 year-old father will attend, along with my sister, Maggie, and her husband, John, and my brother Timothy. A few of our kids will probably attend as well.

Then we’ll spend a few days at Yellowstone National Park and a week in Island Park, Idaho, with Jim’s mom and siblings. We’d love to have David go, but he can’t travel by plane for a few months.