Dr. Wrigglebee I Presume!!

Dr. Wrigglebee had been fully in charge of my healing since I got home from the hospital. Here is his treatment plan...
--Lying beside me constantly to monitor all signs and symptoms
--Expecting me to follow him upstairs daily for an afternoon nap
--Kisses on my ear multiple times daily to inject his healing dog-potion
--Making me take him outside so that I'll get some fresh air
--Bringing me his ball multiple times a day, so I remember to play

All in all, his plan is working beautifully. All signs are my return to high white counts and good health are right on track!

Oh, and Dr. Wrigglebee wanted me to tell you all that he's not taking new patients right now...he says I'm a handful and all he can manage at the moment!

Thanks to my Wellness Team!

Nursing Staff on 2North
Nursing Staff in the Emergency Department
Dr. Rutherford, Emergency Department
Drs. Hannah & Cate & Deb Racster, RN
University Hospital
550 N. University Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46202

To all the good people on Julie Meek’s Wellness Team:

I just had to write to thank all of you for your wonderful care during my recent hospital stay, April 4-8th, 2009. I’ve shared with everyone in my life, that I absolutely had “world-class care”!

I truly appreciated…
• That when I came in late Saturday night to the ED, that the administrative staff checked me in right away and did such a good job with all my paperwork,
• That my nurses started the “post-chemo patient with fever” drill so quickly and that the lab responded so quickly, so Drs. Rutherford and Schneider knew right away what to do, thus preventing a bad situation from becoming a really life-threatening situation,
• That Dr. Rutherford was so totally peer-like in his approach to me and gave me “drips” of results vs. making me wait hours to know what was going on (believe it or not, we had a really great time sharing stories about how emergency medicine had changed since I left that world in 1992!),
• That my nurses on 2N, particularly Laura, Jaime and Jenelle, took every opportunity to ask me how I was doing and responded appropriately with both nursing intervention as well as executing the medical regimen with great precision,
• That Sharon took such good care of me and honored me by reading my ENTIRE blog after her long day at work and letting me know how much it meant to her,
• That Evan did a wonderful job meeting my every customer service need, but also adding loads of fun in his visits throughout my day,
• That the dear lady who brought my food (couldn’t see her nametag…sorry!) and the two sweet ladies who cleaned my room each day (again, couldn’t see your nametags very well as you were so busily cleaning!) were so pleasant and kind and always asked if I needed anything,
• That Dr. Hannah waited patiently the first morning while I got my doctor-son Brian on the phone and was so kind and thorough…I can tell he is a wonderful doctor and teacher!
• That Dr. Cate and all the other residents/students had so much fun placing bets on what my daily counts would be (so fun!) and advocated to get me home with Dr. Sledge (YEAH…great job Dr. Cate!),
• That Deb Racster would make a special trip back to me each afternoon with the “data” on my labs that I so loved to watch and keep track of (loved the graphs!), and
• That all the others who are unnamed here who ran my labs, cooked my food, delivered my drugs, kept my room warm, washed my linens, did the paperwork, and supervised/managed/administered the teams of people necessary to make it all work together for good, were doing their jobs too!!

So good people, great job! Please know how important your work is…each and every day. Thanks for remembering that I am a unique person…and respecting and treating me with such individualized care. Thanks for treating my husband Ted with such kindness too. You are a very special team and your passion for caring showed in every word and deed!

Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jog

YEAH! I'm going to home sweet home right now! The resident was successful in talking them into releasing me today despite the fact that I'm not quite at the '500' threshold (461). Praise God above for His answers to all our prayers! What could have been very serious was caught in time and has turned out so well.

I've talked to many of you who are concerned about me being turned loose without supervision (smile!). I promise to take it easier for a few days until my counts return to my true normal vs. just getting above the minimally acceptable levels.

Thanks to the so many of you who have touched Ted's and my lives over the last few days...it has truly made a world of difference! Bert Bell's prayer for every last one of my budding white cells (click on 4/6 post comments) is a precious read. I don't know that ANYONE has ever had a "white cell prayer" said for them, so I felt so special. Thank you Bert for loving us and praying so eloquently on our family's behalf! Thanks to the many other prayers from all of you...I FELT them in my bones, each and every one!

The White Count Daily Press!

White count is now 1.8, up from 1.3 yesterday....YEAH! My neutrophil count is 288, up from 110 yesterday...this is the one that needs to be 500 before I can go home. I continue to have a normal temp, so we've met that criterion. I feel good. My care has been world class...everyone here at Univ Hospital has been so great. Doc thinks I should be where I need to be by tomorrow so we're hoping I can be home by tomorrow afternoon sometime. I feel the LOVE and PRAYERS comin' my way...thanks so much. I am truly blessed.

The White Count Update!

Hi gang: Thanks to so many of you who have called or emailed me or even better---commented on the blog! I feel your healing support, prayers, and hugs!

Doc was in this morning...able to get Brian on the phone to be a part of that conversation which was super helpful. Bri says I'm getting textbook great care, so it's so nice to have your very own son watching out after ya. Our sweet Jo is watching too!

So here's the scoop...the critical "poly" count that was 24 when I came in, is now 110 as of this morning's blood draw. It needs to be 500 before I can go home. But that's a four-fold+ increase in one day, so your prayers are all working! Keep 'em comin'!

I'm in the hospital but doing fine

I'm so ticked! Here I thought I was done with chemo and had escaped all the potentially more dramatic side effects. But afraid not. I had a bit of a minor cough and sore throat Thurs/Fri, but nothing big. After being out most of the day on Saturday though, we arrived home to find my temp was the magic number (101) where I was told I must call. So we arrived at the ER around 11p Sat night and discovered my white count was 1.2 (my normal is around 8) with a bit of left lower lobe pneumonia. So I was admitted around 3am Sunday and will need to stay on IV antibio's until one of the white cell types is above a certain acceptable threshold and I'm afebrile. They say "a few days". The good news...I really don't feel bad at all.

So pray that my bone marrow makes those white cells like crazy so I can get outta here! I'll go home on oral antibio's and likely be on 'house arrest' until my white count gets most of the way back to normal. I'm gonna be bored to death, so feel free to call or email me. My phone number here at University Hospital is 317-274-9061. Don't worry about calling during the day...you all know naps are not possible in hospitals...so I'll be up!

Rewarding Myself!

I feel really good that chemo is over. I was doing a task I've done a gazzilion times over these past two semesters...printing off readings, punching holes, stapling and getting my course work organized, when it hit me...I need a reward! So here's a picture of the 30+ year old dull 3-hole punch I was using with my pencil marks as guides. A real beauty and such capacity...it could do 3 whole pages at a time!


And here's my brand new Staples delight! What took me an hour before took me 5 minutes with this puppy! I was squealing with delight!


And if you're like me and still have a stapler that looks like the one in the foreground, get right out there to Staples and get the one in the background (they come in really cool colors). As it turns out, mankind has also made a huge leap forward in stapler technology! Who knew??