This month's bloodwork did show an elevated white count again, well above what is considered normal. He had been having a mild fever - above Tom's normal of 36.5 C - but less than 38 C (100 F) for a few nights running and a nagging little cough. No signs of a cold though. Dr. H thinks it's most likely an infection. The chest x-rays were kind of useless, as they were underexposed. Now Tom is on an antibiotic for 10 days, and it does seem to be helping. The cough is almost gone and the fever is still sometimes there at night, but in the lower ranges. We will hope for the best. An infection would be good. Better than an advance of Mr. Ewing, that is.
So how do I know this is the 425th blood test?
Every time we get a copy of Tom's blood count results, there is a requisition I.D. on the top of the page. It made sense to me that each requisition has a unique I.D., but I never looked too closely at that number.
I finally realized this month that it is SEQUENTIAL when I was filing blood test 850000425 in the binder....in front of test 850000424. Aren't I just a bright and shiny penny?
I flipped back through the binder and sure enough, every blood count check in this Health District follows that pattern, going back to Tom's diagnosis. And it only took me just over 2 years to figure that out.
I feel silly, as someone who used to be pretty analytical in my day job, to miss this little detail. But then, I have always been more focused on what the actual numbers and acronyms on the report meant. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
.... Now that I think of it, this could be as many as the 525th, not the 425th, because things are done differently in Calgary - parents don't get copies of the reports. They have preprinted little forms and will write down the WBC (White Blood Cell), Hemoglobin, Platelets and ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count). These darn little slips of paper were real easy to lose, so I don't even know exactly how many times Tom's blood has been tested since diagnosis... But I would guess that they tested him at least 50 times in Calgary.
So let's say they take about 20 ml each time - usually only 10 ml for the actual sample, but some is drawn and discarded first. Sometimes, when extra tests are ordered, they draw more blood. I don't know how it feels to Tom, but just imagine that 9 to 10 litres of your blood has been drawn for testing! Weird, right?
Anyways, just one of those odd things I think about sometimes.
So what have we been up to? Tom stays busy, visiting with friends and getting out as often as he can. This past month he saw a couple of movies. Tom's taste in movies ranged from the emotional
50/50 (the story of a young man with a rare cancer) to the ridiculous
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (the title says it all!). We were honoured with VIP seating at Luther College's production of Fiddler on the Roof earlier this month. And he also made it to a Halloween party with some of his classmates from Luther last week. The days and weeks seem to pass quickly, punctuated by the monthly medical checkups, where we mentally 'hold our breath' till we get the results.
Each month we wonder: is the outcome truly inevitable? Could they be wrong? Why can't they be wrong?
Dr. H says it's important to be realistic, but I think realism sucks. We have been doing 'real' and it's a drag. Why can't we be unrealistic? What's so bad about that? The outcome may be the same, but at least we'll have had a better time in the meanwhile. So, while certain heavy discussions have been necessary, others have been put on hold indefinitely. Of course, this month's blood work is a little jolt, but there's not much we can do but hang on and ride the roller coaster.
Mike's been busy getting the vehicles and the yard ready for winter. Normally, we don't use the back door once snow flies because the deck is rather slippery. But this year, now that the back door is Tom's access point to the house, we needed to do something about that! Mike bought some adhesive treads and applied them to each step and the decking in front of the door - a 3M product called Safety-Walk. Now the trick will be to see if they last. We had our first snowfall last night, and unfortunately, I don't know how durable these strips are going to be when the shovel goes over them.
Mike seemed to enjoy getting the yard ready for winter using his new toy...er, I mean, yard tool: a leaf blower! So our yard looked very neat and tidy this fall, without the usual backbreaking effort of raking leaves! However, the shoveling will all too soon replace the raking. Mike says it's time for the girls to bring home some big strapping young boyfriends - ha!
We have room now to park 2 (two!) vehicles in the garage, so that will help with the congestion on our street a little bit. By the way, a friend gave us a great tip: if you have a garage door opener that is really old (like ours) you can often still buy a remote for it online! Since we had lost the opener for one side of the garage, that was a really valuable tip!
Our daughters each own their own car, including snow tires. As well, we have snow tires for our van and car. In addition, we purchased snow tires for the rented wheelchair van - so we now store six sets of tires all the time! No wonder we feel like are running out of storage space! Mike finished the wheelchair ramp for the garage side door, and stored the lawnmower for the season. The snowblower has been winterized and is ready to go. Knowing snow was in the forecast, last night when we brought Tom home from a movie with his pals Austin and Kristian that we used our back alley and garage access for the first time in months! It was a momentous occasion!
The City has moved from back alley garbage bins to individual curbside pickup bins for each household. Our only concern now is that maybe the city won't run a snowplow down the back alley as often as they used to, and that could be tough for us to get in or out... but I guess we'll deal with the problems as they arise.
We are still somewhat concerned about snow and ice making the wheelchair lift dangerous, so have ordered a custom cover to keep it clear. Unfortunately, it won't be ready till this coming week, but at least it will be here soon. If you haven't seen what this lift looks like, here's a link to see the info on a
Bruno Vertical Platform Lift. In Tom's case, since he can no longer bend his knees, we had to take the safety gate off. When we drive him onto the platform when leaving the house, there is nothing to stop him from slipping forward besides his wheelchair brakes - so if the platform were too icy, it could be a very scary thing!
We realize how blessed we are to be in a position of needing these preparations for winter. It's a good problem to have, relatively speaking.
Coming up this month, we mark the passing of both Tom's grandpa's, and Remembrance Day.
We're looking forward to our 'adopted' son Kent appearing in Globe Theatre's production of Robin Hood. More movies, no doubt... and visits...and hopefully not too much snow.
In December, we are hoping to help put together a kid's Christmas Party for all the clinic families in December. Naturally, we are excited for Christmas, and for Nancy's return for a break.
Hope all is well with each of your households. I'll touch base again after next month's bloodwork, at the latest.
Thanks for continuing to take an interest in us, and keeping our boy in your thoughts and prayers.
Stay warm,
Thomas' Mom
