morrowlife

Here’s a hot pink rose.  Great Art taken last Saturday at the City of Hope rose garden, courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, and part of my exclusive Garden series.

Is that color hot pink, Loyal Readers?  I’m guessing here.

No post yesterday.  I remember right after I went to bed, and by then it was too late.  Sorry about that, Loyal Readers.

Had a good couple of days.  I got both of the dead cars started and drove each one for about half an hour.  The Mini’s doing fine.  My beloved pickup, sadly, was unwilling to start again after I shut it down.  After jumping it a couple more times with no more restarting luck, I decided it was time for a new battery.  Went to the dreaded Walmart to get a new one this morning.  After I picked one and started walking away with it, LRN4 noticed where it says “Free Installation.”  So I put it back on the shelf, went home, jump-started the truck one more time, and drove it over there for a new battery.  There were no other cars in the shop, so they got me right in and had the new battery installed within 20 minutes.  And the engine started when I turned the key!  Amazing.

Anyway.  LRN4 continues to feel pretty good.  She’s still getting tired fairly easily, but she’s keeping busy organizing the house and just enjoying being home.  So am I.  She was delighted to report this morning that she’s starting to gain some of her lost weight back.  Hopefully, that’s a trend that will continue for a while.  We visited our Las Vegas doctor this afternoon – hadn’t seen him since late March, but he’s been following LRN4’s progress while we’ve been away.  It was great to see him again.  I think things are going to go just fine while we’re here, although it will be just a little less convenient doing things like transfusions.  They don’t do those in the office, so we’ll have to go to a hospital way across town every time.  So we’ll be busy.

And that’s about it for today.  A little bit of progress on the iOS app last night, none whatsoever today.  It’s going to be a real challenge getting it done.  But I’ll get it done.  Going to start taking my trusty laptop with me to appointments.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: attack giraffe!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s one more rose whose name I know – the beautiful Candelabra.  Can any of my Loyal Readers guess how I figured that one out?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope’s rose garden, and part of my famous Garden series.

Pretty good day today.  We visited LRN4’s doctor and we’re still on track for departure from California on Monday.  She’s feeling pretty good, although she continues to lose weight at a fairly alarming rate.  We really need to pump her back up.  Right away.  So our imminent departure is the good news.  The less-good news is that the doctor says we may need to be here in the Village for four weeks after each of the upcoming DLI transplants.  The even less less-good news is that the transplants will be four weeks apart from each other.  The even less less less-good news is that there will be about four of them.  And the even LESS less less less-good news is that this whole process will encompass Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, our 35th anniversary, and New Year’s Day.  Sigh.  Also all the days in between.  Plus a bunch before and after.

Our greatest hope is that LRN4’s graft-versus-host disease will be extremely mild or even non-existent, so maybe we can limit the stays to two weeks or so each.  Cross your fingers for us, Loyal Readers!

But it’s nothing we can’t handle in any case, as long as we’re working on that shot at LRN4’s long-term remission.  We’ll do it.  There are worse places to be.

Made some more progress on the app.  LRN31 has been running it and has made some excellent suggestions, all of which I plan to incorporate.  I’m working on the password protection feature right now.  I have the iPhone version working just fine, but the iPad version with its fancy-schmancy split view controller is being a major pain.  I’ve tried several things, none of which have worked right.  I’m sure the right thing is out there, though.  I have another consultation phone call scheduled with LRN1 tomorrow morning at 8:00.  It’s so great to have supergeniuses for children.

LRN4 spent a lot of time working on her blog today.  She’s trying to get the cover pictures taken for a couple of books she borrowed from the library here, before she has to return them over the weekend.  In order to get the cover pictures taken, she has to have finished all the projects for each of the books.  So she made a whole lot of really cute little things and a couple loaves of delicious lime pound cake, which I have been helping to eat.  It’s the least I can do.  I think she got everything done that needed doing, which is more than I can say for myself.

She was in such a hurry because my dad is coming to town tomorrow for a two-day visit.  He flew in to Las Vegas today and will return there on Saturday evening.  He doesn’t fly out until Tuesday morning, so we expect to get a chance to show him our new house on Monday afternoon.  We’re certainly looking forward to that, and to the weekend visit here.  It’s really kind of him to come out and visit us.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: macaroni and cheese-related stabbing!

See you tomorrow.

Here are some roses whose name I actually know: Rainbow Sherbet.  I think these blossoms are beautiful, but the interesting thing is that the red and yellow blossom there on the bottom left is on the same plant as the purple and white ones.  They have some amazingly beautiful, award-winning roses in the rose garden here.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPad-cam (a first!), taken at the City of Hope’s rose garden, and part of my famous Garden series.

Not a lot of health news today.  We didn’t go to the clinic, LRN4 took her pills on schedule, she didn’t walk up any stairs, and nothing scary happened.  That’s the definition of a perfect day as far as I’m concerned.

LRN4 did get some exercise today, though.  Since we expect to go home in a few days (hopefully!), we went to IKEA and spent a few hours buying some things we need for the house.  Unbelievably, there’s no IKEA in Las Vegas!  All my Loyal Readers should write their congressman immediately and demand that one be built.  Letters to Santa Claus on this topic are also encouraged.  And are likely to be just as effective.

Anyway.  We had a nice time wandering around the store and buying the things we needed, along with several things we didn’t really need but wanted anyway.  We topped it off with a 50-cent hot dog and dollar ice cream cone for me.  LRN4 still isn’t supposed to eat restaurant food due to her low-bacteria diet, and we wisely decided that an IKEA hot dog wasn’t a good place to stretch the rules, so she didn’t get anything.  But it was awfully nice of her to encourage me to get one.  It tasted good and was worth every cent it cost!

After we got back to the Village, we had a delicious lunch (WAY better than an IKEA hot dog!) and then went back out for me to get a badly-needed haircut.  My head feels way better.  I mentioned to the nice lady barber than I now gauge my need for a haircut by how long my eyebrows have grown.  It’s tough getting old.  She also mentioned what a pretty color my hair is – such a nice blend between brown and platinum blond.  Sigh.

I didn’t really start working on my iOS app until the evening, other than some study and preparation for adding the security feature, which I plan to incorporate tomorrow.  Something big did happen today, though – LRN2 finished the XML file he’s been working on!  I had to massage it a bit to incorporate a couple of late format changes I hadn’t told him about and replace some special characters with their XML replacements.  Then I ran it through an online XML checker, found a single small error (way to go, LRN2!), and stuck it in the app.  It works!  One thing I really need to do is find a way to verify it matches the online version perfectly.  Don’t know how I’ll get that done yet.

In the meantime, LRN31 got registered with my beta testing app installation website, so I’ll push another build tomorrow morning and get it out to her.  LRN3 is also working on getting set up to run the app – we’re having problems with his iPad for some reason – so I’ll get him definitely included in tomorrow’s build as well.

And that’s about it for the day.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: cheeseburger assault!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s one more of the famous City of Hope roses – the star rose!  Actually, I seriously doubt that’s its name, but it ought to be, don’t you agree, Loyal Readers?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken here at the City of Hope, and part of my famous Garden series.

Pretty good day today.  LRN29 was here, as predicted.  She was kind of sad to leave because we don’t think we’ll be here next Tuesday – at least we hope we won’t – so we won’t be getting together for our regular Tuesday morning get-togethers.  We’re sorry to bring those visits to an end too, but still want to go home.  I’m sure my Loyal Readers understand.  But we will definitely miss LRN29’s visits.  Also John’s frequent Sunday evening visits.

On the other hand, we’re looking forward to hanging out with Ken and Melanie again too.  I guess we can’t have everything.

Got a call from LRN9 today and had a nice chat.  Also had a nice long talk with LRN23.  Did I miss anybody?  Oh, yeah.  Talked with my dad.  Talked to LRN8 a day or two ago.  Talked with my mom sometime in the last couple of days – I need to call her again tomorrow.  Probably some other people too.  I appreciate all the calls.

LRN4 is doing pretty well today.  I think she may be starting to get a rash on her scalp, but she’s otherwise just the same as she was yesterday.  Which is not the best, but it’s far from the worst.  Did I mention yesterday that her doctor addressed her large weight loss during that past ten days by instructing her not to exercise?  I tried to get him to tell me not to exercise as well, but no such luck.  But I didn’t exercise today anyway, out of sympathy with LRN4.

Oh, I spoke with LRN1 today too.  And LRN2 yesterday.  I’ll also talk to LRN2 again tomorrow.  That’s a prediction.

Made a little more progress on the app today.  I cleaned up the development and distribution certificates and improved the presentation of text fields – capitalizing the first letters and making the return key navigate from one field to the next.  Not much, but it was something.  I also started the research for adding password verification.  I think I’ll implement that tomorrow.  I got LRN1 to download and have a look at the app.  He suggested the text field cleanups – thanks, LRN1!  As soon as LRN2 gets me the updated standards XML file, I’ll get a copy to LRN31.  I really want her to look at it.

Didn’t buy anything from Amazon today.  But I always appreciate it when my Loyal Readers click on one of my links and buy something.  Not that anybody ever has, of course.  But we did come close to buying something from Amazon today: LRN4 needed an Indian spice called [amazon asin=B000JSQ66U&text=garam marsala] for something she’s planning to make this weekend.  Strangely, she couldn’t find it at Walmart.  I would never have guessed.  She and LRN29 were looking it up on amazon.com when it suddenly occurred to me that I had seen a little Indian restaurant and grocery store very nearby.  So we got in the car and went hunting.  Found the place, went in, and got exactly what she needed for a few bucks.  Also got a can of [amazon asin=B004XNJI9O&text=Milo], which I love.  It’s like malted hot chocolate – delicious and highly recommended.  Anyway, we also ordered a lunch for me there, which was delicious.  It was huge and came with an entree, nan bread, soup, some sauces, and dessert.  I don’t know what any of it really was or had in it, but it was delicious all the same.  LRN29 is currently limiting her dietary choices with great success and LRN4 isn’t supposed to eat out, which explains why I was the only one to get anything.  I felt kind of bad eating all that great stuff in front of them, but I somehow managed to ease my conscience and finish my meal.

Nothing else to report today.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: toilet-dwelling ferret!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s yet another one of the beautiful roses found here at the City of Hope.  I don’t seem to ever get tired of these things.  I’m not sure I can say the same for my Loyal Readers.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope’s rose garden, and part of my famous Garden series.

We had a pretty good weekend.  We did very little, other than going in for chemo, working, eating, and sleeping.  That’s not a bad thing.  Our brother-in-law John came over again on Sunday evening, which was nice, as always.  He and LRN29 have been absolutely wonderful to us.  Very grateful.

Day 10 of chemo is over!  Other than the twice-daily dose of the hyper-expensive other chemo drug LRN4 is taking, she’s done with chemo until the end of this month.  Doesn’t sound like a really long time, does it?

We saw the doctor today and got some great news, some good news, and some less great news.  Fortunately, no terrible news.  So first the less great news: as mentioned in the previous paragraph, LRN4’s next round of chemo should start during the last couple of days of this month.  She’ll have her next bone marrow biopsy on about the 28th, followed by the start of chemo round two whether she’s in remission or not.

Now the good news.  There have been no blasts in LRN4’s blood for the last five or six days.  They were at 6% two days before we started chemo and 8% on the first day, but they dropped quickly and are gone for now.  That doesn’t mean there’s nothing bad in her bone marrow, of course, but it’s certainly not a bad sign, is it?

Other good news: we have a plan.  At least a preliminary one, anyway.  After round two of chemo, we get the next biopsy at the end of September.  Assuming she’s in remission, we start the DLI transplants at the beginning of October and have them once a month for about five months.  They’re all outpatient treatments, but we think we’ll have to be in the Village for a week or two after the first one at least.  If she tolerates them well, we may be able to spend most of the time at home.

Which leads us to the great news: if things continue to go well, we think we’ll be going home a week from today!  There will be numerous trips back to Duarte, of course, including one or two a week for quite a while, but that’s okay.  I’ll make those trips if it means we can live at home.

Everything is very preliminary and subject to massive change, of course, but we’re pretty excited right now.

We also had a frank talk with the doctor about LRN4’s prognosis.  We realize and accept that the odds changed pretty significantly when LRN4’s relapse happened.  The numbers aren’t overly encouraging, but they’re way better than a lot of cancer patients are facing and they’re even better than we were guessing.  So we’re working with what we have and moving forward.  Press on regardless!

Made some excellent progress on the iOS app.  As discussed in Friday’s post, I got the basic functionality working on the iPad on Saturday and got a good start on the iPhone version.  I think I finished the iPhone side today and I have a functioning, fairly solid app.  Of course, it only contains about 50% of the functionality it’s ultimately supposed to have, but things are actually going well.  Will I have it ready for market by the time we leave the Village?  Doubtful, assuming the above predictions are true.  But I still think I have a good chance of making it by the end of the month.  Much hard work will be required, though.  I don’t think I like hard work.

We watched a fun movie tonight – [amazon asin=B002ZG9864&text=Knight and Day], starring the truly bizarre Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, whose bizarreness quotient I am unacquainted with.  In spite of Mr. Cruise’s oddness, it was a fun, mindless action movie.  Recommended.

And it’s time to get ready for bed.  We need to be up early to greet LRN29 and we need our beauty rest.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: ostrich-like cow!

See you tomorrow.