[Greg H]

Today, I sit on pins and needles in my very tiny hospital bed at Duke University Hospital.

[There are really, really smart people here, so it’s surprising to me that, when naming the place, no one figured out that “Duke University Hospital" was going to be abbreviated as “DUH”on every wheelchair, bed, and other piece of equipment. But the Duke Blue Devils were my Dad’s most favorite basketball team, and basketball was almost like religion for him, so I going to cut these folks some slack.]

I’m on pins & needles because my two high-powered docs are meeting to decide whether I continue with Vidaza leading to transplant, or if we charge on in with some induction chemotherapy and scorch the earth, figuring we get to transplant once that is done.

I wound up here because of a fever, of course. I spent four days in Stanly Regional Medical Center — my home hospital — with fever in late April, getting out just in time to attend the big MerleFest traditional music festival in North Wilkesboro, NC, where my daughter was performing and my Mom and Aunt Princess were attending.

I had a couple of fevers at the festival, and a lot of night sweats, but persevered until I returned home and, on May 4, had a sudden fever that spiked at 104.5 F. I was delirious, and my local hematologist sent me off to CMC Northeast, a hospital in Concord NC that has an infectious disease team. The idea was to see if they could discover the reason for my fevers and recommend some antibiotics.

After four days there, the blast count (immature white cells) in my bloodstream spiked up to 16%. That led to a concern that I had progressed to Acute Myeloid Leukemia [AML]. They shipped me off to Duke, since I’d already had a transplant consult here.

Now, on Monday, May 16, I am 12 days in hospital. Never forget, it is really hard to get out of the hospital, once you are in here.

My Docs — DeCastro and Horwitz — both brilliant, skillful, thoughtful practitioners of the craft, are to meet today to debate, discuss, and formulate a treatment plan.

So, I sit on pins and needles.