WTJ?

I don't think YaYa would appreciate a post entitled WTF. I'm not sure she knows what it means, and even though I'd tell Aunt Marpa not to tell her, she would. And then I'd get an earful about how she tried to raise a proper lady. She did try, friends. It just wouldn't stick. But for appearance's sake, I used the less vulgar WTJ - What the Junk? - with all due credit given to one of my favorite former students, Chris Pauley. I'm sure he stopped using this expression 10 years ago, but somehow it stuck with Marpa and I. We use it all the time on Facebook. We figure no one else knows what it means. We're cool like that.

My last day of peace and solitude with my bean didn't quite go as planned. She woke up with her fleece jammies dripping and her forehead burning up. Before all of this leukemia/platelet nonsense happened, Lois had been a bit puny. (For those of you who do NOT reside in Christiansburg, Virgina - puny means sickly.) She had a runny nose for days and I finally called in a refill on her antibiotics and gave them to her for a full week before the infamous bloodwork was drawn. She seemed to be on the mend. The number of dried boogers I was forced to pry out of her minuscule nostrils was on the decrease. Then Lois gets an infusion of platelets and 24 hours later her nose is running like a faucet again and she developed a 'juicy" cough. Cut to this morning and the sweaty jammies and poor Lois is officially sick for the first time in her life. Seriously, folks. This is Lois's first real fever.

So I dosed her up with Tylenol and we watched some Elmo. And she perked up and seemed semi-normal. The doctors at the oncology clinic had told me if she suddenly developed a high fever I needed to call them. But I knew if I made that call, they'd have me downtown in a hospital room and I just didn't want to give up my day with Lois. Her fever didn't seem THAT bad. Against Auntie Gina's best medical advice, I took Lois to meet a friend for lunch. The fever returned. DARN IT! I made the dreaded call while Lois napped and one short hour later we found ourselves at the pediatrician's office having MORE blood drawn. The fear was that if Lois's white blood cell count was too low she wouldn't be able to fight off this infection.

Her white blood cell count was just fine. As were most of her other counts. But can we talk platelets for a moment? Apparently, the lower boundary of a normal platelet count is 150,000. On Thursday, Lois's platelet count was 7,000. Thank God no one told me that her numbers were so low she was at risk of spontaneously hemorrhaging. Nice. Did you even know such a thing was possible? So Lois gets an infusion of platelets on Friday afternoon - and what was her platelet count today? 24,000. Say what? Shouldn't we expect that number to be just a tad higher?

So WTJ? Where did all those platelets go? Was there a hole in the bag? Why is my kid suddenly sick as a dog? (So much for inserting a portacath this week. I can't imagine any anesthesiologist is going to put her out with the junk she's got rattling around in her chest.) And to top it all off, while we were at the pediatrician's office getting blood drawn, the oncologist called to tell us our appointment is at 8:45am but Lois's pathology report won't be back until the afternoon but we should come at 8:45 anyway so they can draw some blood and check her platelets. Hello? That's what I'm doing RIGHT NOW!

Something tells me this is only the beginning.

Meanwhile, I've got a limp noodle upstairs who wouldn't eat any dinner and went to bed with a fever of 100.3 and a very low platelet count. So far this leukemia thing is a real gas.

There's no way I'll ever be able to write thank you notes for all of the kindnesses that are beginning to rain down on the Hogan family, but here's a few people I'm thankful for today:

Allison is going to tackle the DSAGR newsletter for me this month so I don't have to worry about it. Sweet Hannah left homemade sugar cookies for her friend Lois on our doorstep this morning. Kimy and GiGi made us some oatmeal chocolate chippers that I just polished off. Tracy and Kelly both have offered to visit us at the hospital - I just wish I knew when to tell them we'd be there! And my sister called me tonight and made me laugh for a full 50 minutes which made everything seem AOK for a while. And then there's the YaYa and Pops who are bravely tackling my big Mac for the week and YaYa's friend Margarette who treats my children as if they were her own grandchildren and gave the Yaya and Mac safe haven this morning when the power went out in York. And Megan and Evelyn who make me feel like I can do anything - including this thing I so desperately don't want to do. And all of you who have commented on the blog to tell us you are out there praying for our bean. Wow. It's amazing. And Shannon. And my new friend Heather. Thank you both for your words of wisdom. I'll be back for more.

Love you all xoxoxoxoxo