Beyond Bringing Up Boys

I've never been a thrill seeker kind of gal so I can't speak from personal experience. But I have seen pictures where the brave-hearted choose to ride horseback on a narrow, jagged and pebble-strewn path while just over the edge is a precipice that could mean certain death. And to their other side is a craggy, rock wall. That is the best visual picture that I can conjure up of my father-in-law’s health at this moment. He has been running a moderate to low-grade fever off and on over the last couple of days but most alarming—his platelets are 5000. For those of you who don’t know the normal reference for platelets; it is 150,000-300,000. Platelets are the part of the red blood cell that is responsible for the clotting of blood so a platelet count of 5K puts him at risk for spontaneous internal bleeding. His white cell count this morning was 300 (normal would be 3500-10,000). These are the expected results from the assault that chemo has placed on his body. So, he is "on...

Where there is life there is hope. I was a young girl when I first heard this comment, offered to my mom, as solace for my mother’s grief over my grandmother’s impending death. Never have those words meant so much. With each garment I have unpacked –intended to be worn at a funeral—I have given thanks. I am cautiously optimistic about Don’s physical condition. Prematurely, you might warn, and you would be right, because the life of a patient with recurrent leukemia is precarious. Leukemia patients, the doctor warned me when I said that we were planning to come home, die in one of two ways: infection or bleeding. Don’s infection (other than what he acquired in the hospital due in part to the high powered antibiotics that he receives and in part to an insufficient immune system) is under control. And his risk of spontaneous internal bleeding is being control by a transfusion of platelets almost every other day. So at this moment his health remains perilously contingent on blood transfusi...