Can you believe, it no one is wearing red!  I mean we are in the mecca of UTE country, don;t you think that everyone should be wearing some red!!!! Red scrubs, a red tie, a red necklace something!  At least there is one.  Sadly his vision is still blurry so he can’t check out the attendance with his binoculars.   And now , even worse, they don’t know if they can even get the game on TV.  Good thing he is down and out or otherwise I am afraid he would be having words with the administration.  Maybe I had better leave sleeping dogs or (sleeping Wayne) alone.

Yippee!!! we are in business now manually enter channel 64 and we will be able to watch the game – or at least I will.  I didn’t get dressed in red and white for nothing.

They are gone – Wayne’s old WBC’s are finally gone.  So how can that be so bad?  Well, having some white blood cells hanging around is the reason Wayne has felt as good as he has. (He may have a much different opinion, but for now, because of all the fluids he has received he can not read anything, I take liberties.  You will know when he is able to read himself, I am sure he will correct me.) Now the bad old WBC’s are gone, but they did not go easy.  They left behind havoc.  Thus, the dreaded double-edged sword.   Without WBC’s there is nothing to stop the natural bacteria in or on a persons body from causing all kinds of trouble.  Today the trouble takes the form of stomach pains, nausea, cramping, fatigue, fever, chills, diarrhea, inability to eat.  He is now receiving medications for the gram positive bacteria, gram negative bacteria, pain meds, meds to treat the fever, oxygen, meds to stabilize his vital signs, etc, etc, etc.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring.  This is not for the faint hearted.

Waiting, yes we are waiting.  Waiting for the death of Wayne’s old white blood cells (WBC’s).  I bet you thought those nasty chemo drugs had killed his old bad WBC’s before he received the transplant.  Not quite.  The goal of the chemo drugs was to stop Wayne’s bone marrow from producing any more cells, essentially to kill out his bone marrow so that the donor’s bone marrow could rule “the body of Wayne”.  The cells that are already out in his body do not want to die, so we have to wait, wait for the old cells to die.  For the young cells, and the tougher cells we have to flush them out of their hiding places with the help of drugs.  A lot of these extra WBC’s have been hanging around in his enlarged spleen, there are even some stored on his blood vessel walls.  So the first question we ask every morning is “what is Wayne’s WBC count?”

Now many of you may be asking, “Isn’t it possible that the chemo can also kill the newly transplanted stem cells?  Good question!  Because the chemo are strong but short acting drugs, they work quickly to clear out Wayne’s old bone marrow  (or at least we pray that it does)- so that the new bone marrow will have a nice place to roost.  So for now we are waiting.

What a delight and a treat – Wayne was sitting up ready to try to eat something besides an orange popsicle.  How can this be after the last few days.  Drugs!!    Wayne is a slow metabolizer, this is no great surprise, so they have had to hold off on the immune suppression drugs to get the levels in his system down.  What this means is Wayne does not feel nearly as nauseated, dizzy, and crappy as he has been for the last couple of days.  His WBC count is still there so he can still eat a regular diet. We will take these good days because sadly,  the worse is yet to be, but for now “Carpe Diem”

Wayne is renown for his complete lack of musical aptitude or appreciation, so how is it for the past 2 days he has been living the refrain from the Lazy Man song.  How did he hear this, I mean really, how did he hear it????  I have too many witnesses who can verify it is not just selective hearing loss when he is supposedly listening to me, but the real deal. Even after having ear surgery and the titanium eardrum there was only a small improvement.  So how did he hear it!

And where did he hear it!!    This from a man who makes the musicians at a restaurant take a break or at turn it down. This from a man who has purchased 3 albums in his lifetime, (yes, he probably has collectors wanting his Carpenters and Bread LP’s) and the other was a Rod Stewart singing big band CD, SOOOO where did this come from?  I had to use my Shazam phone app – I had never heard this song.

Therefore, I feel confident in saying, he didn’t hear the verses, wouldn’t understand them if he had, and most definitely wouldn’t be able to recite a verse, given the fact the only song he can sing more that one verse to is his signature song, the famous“Pooper Scooper” song.

Here is the refrain he has been living for the last 2 days:

“Today I don’t feel like doing anything,

I just wanna lay in my bed

Don’t feel like picking up my phone

So leave a message at the tone

‘Cause today I swear I’m not doing anything.”

To better days ahead – W&P

Thanks Wayne really needed that!

Is that an orange popsicle ~ cupcake?  – I think he may have started the next food fad. I can see it now, popsicles decorated like warriors and princesses at all the kids parties.

Happy  Birthday.  How fortuitous for Wayne, to have his new birthday in August.  His friends have always accused him of celebrating his birthday for at least a week, now he can justify the celebration.

The entire “labor” – stem cell transfusion process took 1 hour – I bet there are a lot of women who would like to have a 1 hour birthing experience!

I wish you could have seen them with your own eyes.  What a surprise this was, to be able to see the individual stem cells going through the IV line.  I was not able to get a close up picture with enough resolution for you to be really be able to discern, but you can actually see each stem cell, of course there are a lot of them, but you can differentiate each cell!!  They look like cookie crumbs or tiny air bubbles going through the IV line.  Amazing, who would have thought they would be big enough to see with the naked eye! In the picture if you look close you can see the color variations – those are the individual stem cells