morrowlife

Here’s an exciting nighttime view of the Healing Garden at our local hospital. Looks kind of abstract, huh? Well, it’s not. It was just dark. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken a few days ago at St. Rose Hospital, and part of my famous Garden and Las Vegas series.

Greetings from Houston, Texas! We got to the hotel at about midnight last night. We’re here for LRN4 to be checked out for the previously-mentioned clinical trial. Results are mixed so far. On the positive side, almost all of the people here have been excellent and provided speedy, courteous service. On the negative side, there were a couple of very long waits for service (2 – 2.5 hours each). On the very negative side, it looks like the clinical trial we came to be evaluated for isn’t really right for us. Turns out the drug is really intended as a way to get people into remission when existing drugs aren’t working. While they’re always hopeful that every new drug will help people get into a durable remission, that’s not really what they expect this one to do. So it doesn’t really do more than what we’re doing now.

The doctor told us he thinks our best current bet is a DLI transplant or maybe another stem cell transplant. We’re going to chat with one or two members of their transplant team tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions. If we get another transplant, we’ll definitely do it at the City of Hope. Unless, that is, there’s some reason why they can do it here and they can’t do it there. We’ll just have to wait and see. The great news here is that we’re not in immediate danger, so we have plenty of time to find our way to a cure.

Here’s a note I put on Facebook this afternoon:

Well, it looks like this clinical trial probably isn’t for <LRN4>. She’s just too darn healthy – since her current regimen is keeping her in remission at least for now, the trial’s drug isn’t likely to improve things substantially. Turns out it’s not the cure we came here hoping for – just another way to get back into remission for people who need that.

They’re doing a bone marrow biopsy in a few minutes and we’ll meet with the doctor here on Thursday morning to go over the results just to make sure there’s really no leukemia in there, so the current answer could change, but we don’t think it will.

As sad as I am that MD Anderson isn’t proposing anything that will get us to a cure right now, I’m delighted that we’re able to keep <LRN4> in remission with her current therapy at home. Being too healthy for the trial has its upside. It’s way better to be at home.

We live to fight another day!

That’s what’s going on with LRN4. Some good, some not so good. Either way, it was a twelve-hour day at the clinic, which was more than enough.

No work the last couple of days. My Loyal Readers will just have to forgive me for that. We should have a bunch of time on our hands tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday, so maybe I’ll find the time to get a few things done. Count on it, Loyal Readers!

And that’s about it for tonight. We’re doing fine and spirits are high, or at least medium. So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: undocumented elephant!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a plant in our backyard, full of tiny purple flowers. Beautiful. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken five days ago, and part of my famous Garden, Las Vegas, and Statue series.

Note the extremely attractive turtle statue there in the background, given to us by LRN5 for our garden in Lardville. We think it looks even better here in the desert. Thanks, LRN5! When we see our turtle, we think of you.

LRN4’s health is pretty much the same as it was two days ago. That’s a good thing. We visited her doctor today. He reported that her white cell count is back up to 0.7. That’s okay, though. She got a bunch of transfusions yesterday, which might have had an effect, and cell counting is apparently an inexact science anyway. So we’re not worrying about small stuff like that anymore. We have enough big things to worry about.

Got a tiny bit of work done today. Didn’t work on my user’s manual, as I did the last couple of days. Instead, I got two of my websites set up to automatically publish their blog posts on Facebook. Took a little bit of figuring out, but now I know how to do it. It works great! I’m waiting for LRN4 to decide whether she wants her blog set up to do the same thing.

Just finished reading [amazon text=Johnny Carson&asin=0544217624], by Henry Bushkin. Bushkin was Carson’s attorney for several years. Carson was a great talent but kind of a lousy person, if Bushkin is to be believed. It was kind of depressing – I loved Johnny Carson and I was so sad to find out what a troubled person he was. The saddest part was the end – Johnny Carson died alone. After alienating everyone who ever meant anything to him and who ever cared about him, he had nobody left.

Next book up: [amazon text=Snow Crash&asin=0553380958], by Neal Stephenson. LRN2 recommended it as an interesting example of the bleak cyberpunk genre. So far, he’s right. I’m only a couple chapters into it, I’m usually not much of a fiction lover, and I’m definitely not a science fiction lover (cyberpunk appears to be fairly close to science fiction, if you ask me), but I’m enjoying it.

Next one after that: [amazon text=The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy&asin=0345453743], by Douglas Adams. Yes, it’s old, but I’ve never read it.  I did enjoy [amazon text=the movie&asin=B000A283AW], though.

Next one after that: [amazon text=The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1&asin=0520267192], by … umm … Mark Twain. Volume 2 will come after that.

Got all those books as ebooks from the library. I’m also working on a few marketing books right now, but I’ll describe them in detail at a later date. At least I have a plan.

Anyway. Nothing much else new today, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: quiche standoff!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s one of the organs in the conservatory at Longwood Gardens. That’s a really big console. I would love to have heard that organ being played. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken last year at Longwood Gardens, and part of my famous Garden and Machinery series.

Yeah, I know you can’t see the garden in this picture, but it was there. Trust me.

Pretty good weekend. LRN4’s feeling pretty well and her white cell count is back down to 0.5. The doc says there are just variations. If it had gone up again today, he might have been worried, but the chemo seems to have been working fine. We go back to Los Angeles a week from today to see where we stand. Until then, we relax and enjoy life.

LRN4 has had to cut back down to a single Nexavar pill a day. She had tried to up it to two (our doctor in LA wants her to be taking four a day!), but she had such pain in her feet that she just can’t do it. We’ll have to hope that a single daily pill does the trick. Quality of life issues took precedence this time. She cut down a few days ago and reports that her feet are feeling a lot better by this evening.

Happy Veteran’s Day, by the way. Especially to my numerous Loyal Readers who are also veterans.  Loyal Reader veterans I know of are: LRN20 and . . . umm . . . that’s about it. Sorry if I missed anybody, but many thanks to LRN20, who is actively serving even as we speak.

Does the Coast Guard Auxiliary count? If so, also many thanks to LRN3, who volunteers with those good folks.

Didn’t get much work done today. I love being retired. Wait! No! I’m not retired. I’m self-employed. Guess I was a lousy employee today. Tomorrow’s task – getting at least a few draft chapters done on the user’s manual for the medical app.

Had an interesting discussion last night at the in-laws’ house. Our non-loyal-reader friend Grace asked me if I am in business writing iOS apps. I responded in the affirmative. She said she was approached by a friend to find out whether she knew any developers and wondered if she could give them my name. I asked if they have any money. She responded in the affirmative. I gave her one of my business cards and invited her to invited the friend to contact me. We’ll see if it happens. It would be great to get a paying gig, wouldn’t it? I’m ready for that now. Although I might actually have to work hard. Shiver me timbers.

Not a lot else going on today, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this combination shocking food violence news and exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: breaking-and-entering, Chinese-food-eating bear!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s one more rose from the City of Hope rose garden – behold the Bob Hope rose!  Slightly out-of-focus Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Garden series.

Wonders of WordPress today.  I meant to post on Friday night – really I did – but I was working on my app until about 1:00 on the morning and then I just went to bed without giving a single thought to my blog.  Sorry about that, Loyal Readers.

Friday was a pretty good day.  LRN4 felt pretty good all day and that’s really all that matters.  I made some significant progress on the iOS app, which is nice too.  Still lots left to do, sadly.  I still haven’t actually generated a report, but I have a lot of the infrastructure to do that set up.  Soon.  Maybe Saturday.  I’m trying to finish the iPhone-only infrastructure and then generate a single report.  The iPad, the additional reports, and the rest will come relatively easily after that, I suspect.

Visited with my brother-in-law Ken for a few minutes today.  I was returning his jumper cables and he was home from his most recent trip.  He and Melanie are coming over for dinner Saturday, which we’re looking forward to.

And that’s about it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: aggressive raspberries!  This time, it’s the food itself that’s violent.

See you on Monday

Here’s LRN4 turning her back on our little Village apartment for the last time on Monday of this week.  Well, for the last time this month, anyway.  We expect to be back there in October, possibly for another extended stay.  Maybe even much longer than our previous one.  Although it’s almost certain we won’t be back in good old Number 141.  For all its (numerous) flaws, it was a good temporary home to us.  We were happy there, and that’s what matters.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken Monday morning of this week at the Parsons Village on the City of Hope campus, and part of my famous Architecture and Garden series.

Yeah, I know I play kind of fast and loose with my famous series.  There’s a building and some plants in that Great Art.  That’s architecture and a garden, as far as this blog is concerned.

Pretty good day, in some respects.  Pretty trying in others.  The good – LRN4 is feeling better this evening than she was this morning.  The trying – she spent 11 hours in the emergency room getting a couple of blood transfusions.  Our doctor couldn’t get her scheduled into the outpatient clinic, so that’s where he told us to go.  It was no fun.  After a couple hours, she convinced me to go home and work on my iOS app.  I reluctantly did.  Things worked out for her and I made some real progress.  Lots more to do, but I think I have a good start on tomorrow’s work.  Might even get a report or two generated tomorrow.  As usual, the iPad version is giving me troubles – that stupid split-view controller is really hard to do right.

Anyway, LRN4’s also feeling pretty good tonight because she slept very well last night and then had time for a couple naps while she was hooked up to the blood machine.  That’s apparently the ticket – frequent naps.  I’ll have to look into that myself as well.

We had a very late dinner tonight, since we didn’t get home until after 9:00.  We were both very ready to eat.  After dinner, LRN4 suggested we have some [amazon asin=B003KYSLMW&text=ice cream] out on the deck.  It was really pleasant.  The hospital is on the far east side of town, and we noticed that a weather front had just come through when we got outside.  The front hadn’t arrived at our house yet when we got home, and it passed through while we were outside.  The temperature dropped by probably ten degrees (all the way down to 90 or so!) and there was a nice breeze.  So we enjoyed our ice cream even more.

There’s a bit of work to do on the deck, by the way.  A couple of plants are dead – although the overwhelming majority are extremely health and have grown very nicely while we were away – and most of the beautiful, dramatic [amazon asin=B001RTG8U4&text=lighting] is burned out.  Also, we’ve decided the [amazon asin=B005J0FYHU&text=lemon tree] is in a very bad place and we want to swap it with the fencepost cactus.  So I sent an email to our landscaping guy this evening and we hope to see him in the next week or so.

And it’s late already, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: polluting monkey!

See you tomorrow.