What a difference a day makes

Smiling and laughing this morning, temperature is 98.7, but he's getting 2 bags of blood because his hemoglobin was low. Oxygen levels still great though, so it's just preventative. The new blood may cause a reaction, but dad is feeling great today and was able to eat a full breakfast.

Molasses Swamp

Carl travelled past the gumdrops and lollypops part of Candyland, and hit Molasses Swamp today.  The temperature rose above the key 100.4 (to 100.5), and so the nurses enacted the standard operating procedure (2 days after expected), and put him on some pretty aggressive antibiotics.  We sent fluid samples to the labs to make sure there are no mud bugs hanging out inside of him, and took a chest ex-ray and confirmed he has no traces of pneumonia.  Still waiting on the Mandeville lab to work it's sclerotic process to make sure there is nothing unwanted in the blood.

The antibiotics knocked him out and left him fairly nauseous.  If we can get a massive hangover from a bottle of tequila, Steven comforted him that after 7 days of biohazard chemicals going into him, this hangover was really relatively mild.  Hopefully tomorrow he will wake up with a hankering for cold pizza.  Typical to a hangover, he slept the afternoon away, but still had a smile on his face as the sun set.  His spirits are better than we could have expected, and hopefully the nurses were right and today was the "low."  Carl closed the quarter today at 100.3.

The poet (Jon) will be back tomorrow, so hopefully the viewership bounces (we are humbled that the blog has been viewed 2,000 times).

On a somewhat humorous note, we discovered the loudly moaning lady down the hall with a tracheotomy, was actually not in pain all day but craving a "seafood platter" (this began around 10am).  You can take 'em off the bayou, but you can't take the bayou out of 'em!

Dozing

Been a sleepy day today, fever reached 100.5, so antibiotic reinforcements were called in about a half hour ago. Everything else is normal, and this type of fever was highly anticipated. But the briefer it is, the better, so hopefully the sleep helps.

Over the Valley

We're hitting the post chemo low today, white blood cell count declined from 400 to 300, though ANC (absolute neutrophil count) increased from an ultra low 12 to a very low 21. Dad is much more tired this morning than yesterday, which is expected. Today is hopefully the low, and going into tomorrow we'll be getting through the valley. Temperature and blood pressure are steady, so we're keeping him quarantined to make sure the low is uneventful.

We probably won't be up around walking today, so Paula is going to get the scrabble board. I have to tell her to go easy on him, she sure is ruthless!

If there are other developments, we'll post them. Let's pray it's an uneventful day!!

Emails Welcome!

Although we have the blog going to get updates out to everyone at the same time, dad is still checking email on the sanitized iPad, so feel free to send him an email if you want to wish him well. Depending upon the inbox volume, it may take a little while to get back to you, but he is checking a couple times a day. It's woodtoys@gmail.com.

Carl 0- Paula 1

The ruthless game player isn't going easy on Carl. Mom has already gotten excited by the first game and proposed bringing in the scrabble board. Uh oh...

No news is good news

We were informed last night that although the chemical flow has dried up, the effects of the chemo will keep coming. In that vein, I'm pleased to report this morning is a great morning, blood pressure (137/65) and temperature (97.7) are steady and dad looks better than the day he got to the hospital. He feels good too.

I've put the blood stats below. Absolute neutrophil count has dropped (chemo is having the intended effects) further today to 12 (from 28 yesterday), so the immune system is bottoming. The low is expected tomorrow, but as long as we keep the mud bugs away, we're hoping dad can maintain the current solid feeling and outlook.

We're in day 1.5 of the standard 14 day wait to get another biopsy to gauge whether the chemo has had the desired effects of taking out the leukemia cells.

Chemo Officially Over

Dad is quite happy to sever the main line from the chemo. Nurse said we shouldn't have any residual effects, so we're transitioning into immunity rebuild mode.

When the Cat's Away

Jon did a wonderful job on eloquent and entertaining updates (albeit with some technological hurdles), but dad's diet has taken an acidic turn in the wrong direction. And dad couldn't be happier with the breakfast pictured below. Not to worry, Steven stopped at Whole Foods on the way back from the airport, and is armored with Swiss
chard, kale, parsley and vegan cheese to concoct a makeshift southern spinach Madeleine, without any of unhealthy ingredients (which is just about all of them) and using high alkaline, healthy ingredients!

"I can't believe how good I feel," said moments ago, is confirmed by the temperature and blood pressure data (97.8 and 147/71 accordingly). The white blood cell count hit 400, and the Absolute Neutrophil Count hit 28 (a small bounce from yesterday), so his immune system is at its most vulnerable point, and I'm happy the hawk eyes are back and keeping mom's mask in place (her new nickname is Paula the Petrie Dish, and her updated photo is posted below).

The doc said that while the last bag of chemo is going in now, it will continue to have an effect on his immune system in the coming days. But hopefully he stays away from some dirty bugs and the temperature stays even- that will be the smoothest recovery and leave us with the most options if any subsequent treatment will be needed.

We got the chromosomal analysis back and of course dad has quite a unique type of AML, with a deletion of the 5th and 12th chromosome, and another technical expression that only Jon can pronounce. The only patient with a similar expression Jon has been able to find was an Italian in the late 80's. Maybe he drove an Alfa Romeo Spider- fitting for the coming triumphant return of the same model to the US. So the elder son has been hard at work with his resources and contacts analyzing the best further courses of action. We will keep everyone updated if anything changes from the recovery track in Mandeville for the next 2 weeks.

Given dad's great attitude, health and durability, we are optimistic we can handle the inevitable transfer with ease. I say inevitable because if he goes into remission, we'll be thinking bone marrow transplant, which would take place in New Orleans or Houston. Otherwise, we would probably go into more exotic treatments in Houston, but we will see.

Carl discovers Xanax.

Dad had one of his best days yet, consistent with my prediction yesterday for a strong bounce from intra-day lows.

That's right folks, the peanut gallery is back again tonight, attempting to recover from a crushing move of ignorance in deleting my masterpiece from last night. Not to worry, the Expert will be back in the house tomorrow.

The secret to Dad's miraculous momentum inflection: Xanax. Verses coined by Mick Jagger in Mother's Little Helper, which have been firmly welded into the grooves of his brain since 1972, suddenly have dynamic meaning. As depicted in the likeness below, he's a happy camper.

Amazing what 9 hours of deep sleep will do:

Temperature: 98.0 F
Blood pressure: 125 / 65
Weight: 165 pounds
Heels: clicking

We're not out of the woods yet (pun intended), but safe to say we're quite fortunate to have Dad in this state heading into his final day of chemo, ready for the next challenge that is bound to be around the corner.

Dad, Mom, Steven & I want to express how appreciative we are for the unbelievably humbling amount of support we've enjoyed over the past week.

I can honestly say I've never seen Dad in better spirits.

Keep it coming!

Thanks To You All!!!!

Check out dad's gigantic teary-eyed, smile after watching the video! I will post the video on YouTube as soon as I can finish it up (waiting on a couple last minute ones). I can't tell you how much it meant to get New York, Jersey shore lobsters, Tennessee goats, Atlanta singing, and some good ole Louisiana songs and loving messages. It's going to be a great video to pop on throughout the next couple of weeks and months.

That's my excuse for not posting today, wrapping all of that up. Dad is doing well today again. The blood pressure is creeping up, which is expected from the chemo. But his temperature hasn't crept up a bit, which is great. If it stays like this (knock on wood) he won't even have to go on antibiotics and can recover at home. We will see...

Dad walked around a lot today and stayed standing or sitting upright for most of the day. We watched (well really mom watched) Italy vs. England and thankfully the Italians won!

Thank you all, seriously thank you for all the video efforts. I think just showing Carl that all of you care for him enough to spend the time and energy to make it happen was the greatest gift of all. Can't wait to post it for you to watch!

12 Laps and Some Good Jams

We took a break from the meditations and have been shooting the bull listening to Paul Simon, Chairlift and The Whitest Boy Alive.

Jon and Steven are about to go grab a bottle of Barolo and we're going to watch the new Sherlock.

Dad's blood pressure has been a little higher today, which was expected. But it's still reasonable- last at 149/61. Temperature is steady and dad is still gaining weight and has an appetite. Perhaps he is sleeping a bit more throughout the day, but it is probably because he's off a normal sleep schedule at night. He did 12 laps of the floor today, and everything is going well.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers, emails and calls.

Our favorite quote of the day came from Catherine Weil:

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."
-Elizabeth Kubler Ross

Chemo is Building

Dad's still not feeling it, but it's certainly building. White blood cell count is back down from 0.8 to 0.5. Dad said he feels "almost normal." so we're still going well, approaching day 4 of chemo.

He did the meditations all night last night and slept on and off, though he did sleep a lot yesterday from the Benadryl.

Temperature is steady at 97.7. Keep up the prayers! (and we are smiling in the picture).

Fluid Day

Because the hemoglobin was low, dad got 2 bags of red blood cells put into him, on top of the chemo fluids and a lot of pre-chemo chemicals, there's a lot of things going into dad. The second bag of RBC's gave him a rash reaction, so he got some Benadryl put into him, which he said "feels so good."

He slept after that, and besides a brief bout of itchiness, everything has been good today. Dad is retaining some liquids (and solids), but the high-fiber alkaline diet Steven's got him on will hopefully pull through.

Note the speaker piping in the meditations. And mom's lack of ability to keep the mask on. Steven has been scolding this habit every 10 minutes. But we are still friends!

Great Thoughts

"Life is a gift." -Kevin Schochat

"We're going to get through this, and we will be better people after its over." -Jon

"Know that if anyone can conquer this, it's your pops." -Chad Mason

"We'll be thinking thoughts of strength and positivity." -James & Eileen Ray

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Blood's going in and dad won't touch the mystery fish.

Temperature is 97.7, looking good.

Another great morning

"I Feel Great," this morning and the nurses confirmed that- white blood cell count rebounded from 0.5 to 0.8.

Temperature went from 98.2 to 98.7 but dad was already a couple of cups of coffee deep.

They are going to put 2 units of blood into him because the hemoglobin was low. But we're going to walk around first, then do one extra round of chemo (he is on both idarubicin once a day and ARA-C or cytarabine non-stop), after which he'll get some new blood in him. I'm trying to see if I can give him blood for the next time, since I'd rather a marathoner's blood than someone who potentially eats Raisin' Caine's!).

We are listening to the Downton Abbey soundtrack, dad's looking at the Boston Whaler magazine- thanks Wade!

Calling all videos

Steven's going to surprise dad with a montage of well-wishing videos, can everyone take a moment to film or voice-record a little vignette for dad? Recording on a phone would probably be easiest (youths, help your parents) and please email to steven.d.wood@gmail.com

I hope to have it finished up by Saturday night, so that's the deadline. We'd appreciate all your efforts!!

And dad is still feeling great, chemo is clearly running 24 hours into it, and he doesn't feel anything changing.

Chemicals

That orange sure looks organic. Can we confirm that this is non-GMO?

Meditation take 2

The second attempt just turned into a nap! Check out the blood pressure (hot pink)

We're All Here

3 Laps On the 2nd Floor

It's a good morning!!

Day 1

Hello everyone, thank you for your calls, prayers and best wishes. Because dad can't receive any visitors, we'll be posting updates here, and you should be able to sign up for email updates too. FaceTime is available by trying woodtoys@gmail.com, dad would love to see you all! FaceTime should ring the iPad, but we can also try Skype with a username of carllwood. That won't ring though so we have to have a heads up. Here's the latest update: dad is feeling "real good" this morning. Chemo started yesterday at 4pm, and will run 7 full days. After that, he'll be in a recovery mode where he'll be on antibiotics since his immune system will be, and already is, quite weak. That lasts for 2 weeks then they take another bone marrow biopsy to see what to do next. His white blood cell count has gone from 1,000 yesterday to 500. This is expected by the staff here, who by the way, are awesome. We have a full-time nurse just allocated to dad, and dad is connecting and joking with all of them so far. After Jon and Steven aggressively lit a fire under their butts (we are now the talk of the floor, according to one nurse who we were friends with prior to getting here), we are getting top notch treatment, heads of nursing and staff come by probably too much to see if we need anything. Friends and family have helped us so much, and we are particularly thankful of the Weil's and Bolotte's efforts. A friend of Jon's has given us some meditations that have had profound effects on his father and plenty of other users. We are doing 2 chemo tracks and the Fight Cancer track from this website: http://www.healthjourneys.com/product_detail.aspx?id=4 If anyone has any neat suggestions, please email them to steven.d.wood@gmail.com. From the prayer circles that our friends and family have put dad in, I think over 1,000 people are praying for dad- this is great and please keep it up!!! Wheezie brought some water from Lourdes and we'll be putting it on dad when the going gets tough. But we are all ready and in great spirits. In fact, everyone calling is taking it harder than we are, rest assured dad is gearing up for a big fight and is ready to kick some AML tail!! We spent the whole afternoon and evening yesterday laughing and shooting the bull as if we had just killed a magnum of dad's favorite wine. (is there even a favorite? He is Omnibenevolent towards red wine). We'll write more soon, thanks for your thoughts and prayers!!!