[stanford_status] Afternoon report

[John R Larsen]

Hello Everyone,

We received a call from Dr. O'Shea's office this morning with the 
results of the blood work done yesterday.  His hemoglobin (HGB) is 
at 9.4.  Last Wednesday, Nov 22nd, during this latest crisis his HGB 
had dropped to 8.0.  Normal range is 14.0 to 17.0, but lab tests on 
Nov 15th showed his HGB was 10.0, which was already low due to 
chemotherapy.  Stanford received a transfusion of one unit of blood 
last Wednesday.  This normally bumps the HGB up a point, so it 
should have been around 9.0.  The fact that he is at 9.4 is 
encouraging because that indicates little or no bleeding.  Stanford 
has an appointment at Dr. O'Shea's office on Monday, Dec 4th, at 
4:00 PM.

Stanford had a better night last night (and so did I).  During the 
day when he naps we have been playing Danny Wright music in his room 
to mask outside noise and fill the room with peaceful comfort.  We 
did that last night and that seems to have helped.  He pretty much 
slept through from 11:00 PM to 4:15 PM except for getting one 
oxycodone at 12:30 AM.  He was up from 4:15 PM to about 5:30 PM and 
finally got through all the email that he had received.  

After finishing with his email he went back to sleep until 7:45 AM 
when he woke up in a fair amount of pain.  Today is the day we 
switch the timing of the time release oxicontin pain medication to 
twice a day at 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM.  So he was a couple hours late.  
I gave him the 40 mg of oxycontin and 10 mg of the faster acting 
oxycodone.  His pain eased up fairly quickly.  He has been playing 
games on his Wii, reading up on different Magic Cards, watching the 
senior class video, and checking out stuff at homestarrunner.com.  
Some members of the Nashua High South gaming club and their advisor 
Mr. Heaton are coming over this afternoon at 2:30 PM to play games 
of Magic the Gathering, one of Stanford's favorite things to do.  He 
will be resting soon to be ready for that.

We are still hoping for the miracle.  Please keep us in your 
thoughts and prayers.

John
_______________________________________________________
John R Larsen <john at larsen-family.us>
http://larsen-family.us