Platelets and Hgb by
hankins.greg, on Flickr
Day 10 of the NIH Campath trial showed a happy improvement in my counts:
Hemoglobin is hanging in at 9.5 after my Day 8 transfusion.
Platelets took a nice jump up to 52
Neutrophils bounced back up to 1.56
Neurophils and Lymphocytes by
hankins.greg, on Flickr
Neutrophils seem more prone to jumping up and down than the other counts. I believe they are the elusive elves of the blood system and spend a good bit of their time hiding in nooks and crannies where they can't be found.
Given that the few measly lymphocytes I have left are probably making the thymus (I understand they like to hang out there) a very lonely place, maybe the neutrophils duck in there occasionally to try to cheer up the decimated T-cells.
Daughter Jeni visited today and we went for a healthy walk outdoors -- in response to advice from a nurse who thought my lung capacity sounded "diminished." It was, in fact, too much time spent hunched over a computer trying to figure out a gnarly website problem. But the outdoors walk cleared everything up.
They have a patient fitness room here, but, unlike the library, its hours are fairly limited, and never seem to fit with my schedule.
Down on the second floor, near the cafeteria, there's an incredible collection of large framed photos taken with some sort of powerful microscope.
Lavender Leaf by
hankins.greg, on Flickr
That pumpkin hiding in the thorny forest above is a scent gland hiding in the gnarled surface of a lavender leaf.
Scented Gardenia by
hankins.greg, on Flickr
The dragon’s tail above is the miniature thorns and leaf hairs of a scented geranium.