Running on Empty

This morning after IHOP we went to the ACC (Arlington Cancer Center) to have Sheila's daily infusion of antibiotics and a nupergen shot. She is really worn out due to lack of hemoglobin in her red blood. No red blood cells means she is not processing oxygen and she gets winded just walking around. We normally would have been to the hospital for whole blood but they are booked up and we cannot get in till tomorrow. Once she gets the whole blood she will perk right up and start improving, at least related to her energy levels. Her counts will continue to drop further for at least the rest of the week and I am sure we will be back to the hospital to get her some platelets before she rebounds from this last very powerful dose of chemo. It is called HIDEK (not sure of the spelling) but it is about 60 times the potency of the regular rounds she had in the beginning. We also found out she has subtype M-2 AML and at least that isn't the most devastating subtype to have and it has a slightly better than average prognosis for a recovery. We have met a young guy who has subtype M-8 and it does not respond to chemo so he is right now undergoing radiation and a bone marrow transplant. I hope he makes it!

Sheila is resting now and I am doing some laundry before going to meet my daughter Ashley for lunch. She is also returning some clothes she had of mine in storage and I could use them because we don't have much here with us. Most of whaat we own is still in my car up in Connecticut! Hoping to drive the car back to Texas after we visit my family in Newport for Thansgiving. Things look like they are working out as far as making it up there, all we have to do is get Sheila strong enough and get on the plane! My sister Sue is having new tires put on my car and I can't thank her enough. I planned on putting new tires on it after we finished the trail and moved to Virginia. I know they were getting bald and have squeezed every possible mile out of them. Thanks to Sue and Mike for taking care of this before we get up there!

The pic today is Sheila at a unique shelter on the AT. It is an AT Caretaker's converted garage in his yard just down the street from where the AT crosses a road. The Caretaker is a volunteer who lives in the house and maintains the shelter, the house and the yard. He also takes care of the hikers who stop there for the night. There were showers and toilets and even rumors of ice cream, although he had stopped selling the ice cream on the "honor system" for obvious reasons, by the time we came through! THAT was a BIG disappointment!