Camp MDA

Apologies, a beloved family member nearly deleted this post.  I'm reposting, but the most recent post is below.

From Tuesday Night:
How much more could we jam into 24 hours? We got a call from MD Anderson at 2:45, just as Steven was trying to execute orders before the market close and Paula was calling Steven for a ride from the Ford dealer. They requested a barrage of information from us, which amounted to a 38-page fax. Picture a kid with a bewildered look in his eyes asking any nurse that would look at him for help gathering information. A total of 5 were deployed to gather info, with a few claiming certain documents were unavailable, that is until Steven asked again (less politely the second time). That endeavor was humming along, when Houston called again at 4:30 to say the appointment was scheduled for 10am the next day. Knowing the proclivity of many southern workers to "yabba-dabba-doo" at 4:59, we had less than a half hour to get dad discharged, to pickup antibiotic prescriptions, to get the stupid car from the Ford dealer, and to try and complete the information-dump request. Unbelievably, we made it all happen in 30 minutes, and dad got discharged in short order after the last blood transfusion went in. All we had to do was move all his things home and scrub down the car in order for the Nimble Neutropenic to safely get over to Houston. He was released at 7pm and upon getting in the car, said it felt like an "out of body experience." of course, Carl was in great spirits, and David and Elizabeth McMahon were luckily there to be with dad as the family hurriedly scrubbed anything to be used for his short stay at home.
We all got "a full forty minutes," or so it felt that short, of sleep and woke up at 2 to hit the espresso and pack the car. The trip was smooth for all the nappers, and we arrived with ample time to spare, as if Paula would allow otherwise.

We then received our "agenda," and met a lot of smiling people. It truly felt like summer camp, traveling from station to station, with a brief stopover in the cafeteria.

10:00 am: Monopoly (insurance, payment, and disclaimers)
11:00 am: Trivial Pursuit (nursing assessment)
12:00 pm: Kool-Aid Party (Blood specimen collection)
1:00 pm: Drills and tools shop (bone marrow aspirate)
2:30 pm: Photography (Chest X-ray)

The day ended getting the best news of all: dad's absolute neutrophil count (key white blood cell count) ramped from 250 yesterday to 762 today. He is feeling good, drinking wine, and looking forward to meeting the German-Cowboy doctor tomorrow. And thankfully that 24 hours has passed and we will sleep longer than 3 hours.