Day 9: Tomorrow is another day...

WBC: less than 0.4
Platelets: 23
Lbs lost since SCT: 11

Yes, I know. Vivian Leigh's character was annoying in Gone With the Wind, given to stating the obvious, such as "tomorrow is another day." (Wha? It is?) But the statement seemed fitting.

Today was not the best day on the SCT roller coaster: mouth discomfort, throat pain, nausea, lower GI problems, throwing up. The mephalen he took last week is doing its job. No time for boredom today.

Richard's counts should start swinging up in a few days. He's receiving Nupogen again, to stimulate stem cell production. We expect him to have a blood transfusion if his platelets go much below 20. We'll see where he is in the morning. I looked back in my notes from January, and the doctor said approximately 50% get mouth sores, 99% get diarrhea, and the majority have fevers and blood transfusions. We seem to be on target. Yay for normal sickness.

We did manage to watch a nice little international film titled "Turtles Can Fly." It's a powerful film about a group of orphaned children (Kurdish refugees) on the Turkey/Iraq border trying to eke out a living finding and selling land mines prior to US forces' arrival in 2003. [This was the first movie filmed in Iraq after the fall of Hussein's regime.] It was not light or funny, but very moving. We've watched our share of Friends and Seinfeld over the last week, so this was a nice balance.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today, so all I have to offer in the way of pictures is this one from two days ago. No, he's not praying. It's a "this cellblock is too small" moment. We are listening to Mozart's flute concerto #1 and #2, and Richard is imagining himself conducting. Note the pencil "baton."

The orchestra did quite well under new leadership.