Short Blast from the Recent Past

Stan Here Again:

A little new news and a reason to update.  Deb had her platelet count done again Sunday night and she scored 96. They require 100 for her to receive her last Chemo. I think last night she hoped that it was close enough to go in and have chemo today. So at 8 this morning she called to see if she could talk her way in.  However, they are pretty firm with this number and have found that if the administer the treatment below 100 the recovery time can be longer. They had to draw a line somewhere.  So they suggested waiting till Thursday and checking it again the day before.  The good news is that just a few days ago these counts were hanging in the mid 50's At least things are moving in the right direction.  Again, the timeline of this thing is that once this treatment is given there is a time period before she can receive the reversal surgery for her ileostomy.  In my humble judgement I would say that for obvious reasons this surgery is at the very top of the list.  While it is true that we  have often heard of people who endure these things, it is also true that this has been a source of great pain for Deb. Knowing that she is not a wimp, I would say for certain that when she says this thing hurts I know she means it.

We had a fine trip to Cleveland for a wedding of one of our neighbors sons.  It was held on the campus of Case Western Reserve. Somehow when you are there you can feel the presence of many smart people all around. Plus the buildings on that campus are kind of cool.  A real interesting    
place.  They put on a nice wedding and it was really fun to visit with a number of their relatives who are from Ireland.  Somehow the Irish people have kind of neat spirit. They just are nice.  They have kind of a cool way of expression and humor that somehow grabs you.  Plus some of the neighbors that we have known for years were there. All in all a good time.

We did visit Great Lakes Brewing on our way out. This is the firm that that employs Alden.  They are real popular in the Cleveland and the whole state of Ohio.  Alden's job is to market their products here in Michigan.  So over these past few years I have seen their products in more and more places.  At one time I would have said a beer is a beer. But now that I know a little more (and Alden has bought over a few samples) I might say that they all taste like water with alcohol in them except for the stuff he sells.  I go in to every restaurant and when it come time to order I ask if they carry Great Lakes.  Not sure that this has made a difference but we do take care of our own don't we all.  I must warn this stuff is a little higher octane than the average, so be careful.

On the way home we stopped at Cabella's.  I said to Deb at one point that we might have been the only ones there who where not wearing camo gear.  This place was packed. It had fish swimming around in streams and about everything you can think of to set you up for spending time outdoors. I felt a little sorry for animals.  If you were an animal, this place sold quite a bit of stuff that might be dangerous to you.

On the way home we listened to the Tigers win.  2 zip in the series. While I was driving Deb was going nuts cheering in the car.  Some things never change.  All in all a fine trip. Now we must get a few breaks on these blood counts.  I think the idea here is to shag the bag.  Anybody want to bet against that?  The good money is on her quest to make this happen.  Oh, by the way after the game was over we listened to Garrison Keiller.

That is the new from here.  All the women are good looking, all the children are obedient, all the trees have nice color, and winter is still a couple of months away.

So long from Stan the Man.