Hospital update

Liz was diagnosed 3 weeks ago tonight. It's been a long 3 weeks.

My hot wife is still in the hospital. She'll be there until tomorrow at least, maybe later.

THUMBS UP

• My sweet and smart 9-year old niece Madison emailed me this morning with instructions on how to add the flag counter to the blog (see at right of page). Thanks, Maddy!
• Our boys are being cared for by wonderful friends we love and trust.
• Liz's liver enzymes are 'basically normal' from this morning's bloodwork, and her white blood cell count (WBC) is now at 1.4 (it was 0.7 on Sunday night when we went in), which is still way too low but it's moving the right direction.
• The fever isn't rising.
• She'll get daily shots to help raise her WBC while she's in the hospital, and the next round of chemo.
• The skin rash is clearing up as her WBC grows.
• Feeling a wee little bit better every hour.
• Y'all and everyone are really, really nice. Amazingly helpful and supportive and caring. Mindblowingly kind, actually. Except for that one nurse, but we won't go there.
• A new logo from my brother, Mike, that doesn't include gross cancer cells being destroyed by dragons and fists and arrows and yetis. His official submission to CoolPeopleSubmitTeamLizLogos@gmail.com for the Battle Banner competition:

THUMBS DOWN

• My niece had to tell me how to add a flag counter, since I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to do that myself.
• Our boys will think that our house and family are super boring after having such a good time at friends' houses over the past few days.
• I'm not a doctor.
• My boys aren't funding Liz's and my world travels. Yet.
• Liz has cancer.
• Those are all bad things. It's also bad that Liz's nutraphil count is still zero (or, more technically, and I hope that my MBA statistics professor is reading this to see if I've learned anything so far: the blood test's population confidence interval for the sample nutraphil value of 0.3 bounds the value of zero). Nutraphils are basically mature white blood cells that best know how to murder sickness. I think of them as the blood's ninjas. But remember, I'm not a doctor, so it might be best to just think of them as violent killers. Or, just ask a doctor. Which is not me. See above.
• Her mouth sores are not yet healing, and they won't until the blood ninja nutraphil counts rise. She can't leave the hospital until the mouth sores are better, so it's really day-to-day right now.
• Still too many medications to help her try to feel cancer good.

I stayed with Liz last night until the doctor's rounds this morning. Then home to shower (you're welcome Ulta), quick cleanup and errands, back to work for the day, and a return trip to the hospital this evening after work. She's trying more foods, moving around more, taking pain medicine less frequently, so we're moving in the right direction!

I also realized that I need a hobby. My favorite hobby is just hanging out with my wife and spending time with the boys. My second favorite hobby is watching Judge Judy with Liz and yelling at the TV. My love is for music, but there hasn't been much time for singing lately. In an empty house, an empty car, I've found (again) how comforting it is to sing. Loudly. And not just to make my boys laugh.

Liz and I watched Les Miserables yesterday. We especially enjoyed the performances of Andy Sachs and Wolverine. It reminded me of the greatest rendition of Bring Him Home I've ever heard, as performed by Alfie Boe, the genius who performed on the 25th anniversary PBS special. This one is just Alfie and the MoTab/Orchestra. And I like to sing along. Loudly. And it makes me smile, since Liz likes it too.

Alfie Boe sings "Bring Him Home" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Hoping for release from the hospital tomorrow.

Go Team Liz.