Katie's BMT Updates

Let us think on the sunny side of two weeks in stir. You have missed the heat wave. Even Phoenix TV reported that San Francisco hit 96 degrees last week. Then there is the matter of all of the gas you aren't using. In these parts gas goes for about $4.10 a gallon. It is usually higher in California. Someone else is cooking and doing the dishes for you; and your family is coming to treasure you in new ways. Not that you wouldn't just as soon done your own cooking and dishes, sweat in the heat, or burned a bit of gas speeding along the freeway rather than serve time in Cell Block 1159. . .

Still, we who love you are so glad that you chose this voluntary incarceration. We are grateful beyond words that all is going well. We wish we could take the nausea and shakes away, but we know it comes with the territory and admire your determination and courage. We cheer when you write that the doctors say you are doing well. We cheer when you write--let me tell you that a day without a blog entry is a concern.

On to Day 6+!

Blessings to Katie and to all who love her,

Eva

Dear Katie,
Good to hear from you and your time in there is about half over. But it has not gone fast at least for me anyway. It has seemed like a month or more to me. I wish that I coould be there with you and do what we could to pass the time. It is hard being here and waiting and wondering, but oh well.
I am at work and it is terribly busy as usual. The census went up by twofold today. Sick people all over the place. I have tons of paper work to do-been here 6 hours and I have done nothing but medicate people, admit people, start IVs, etc. Now to start to dig my way out of the paper city.
Well, talk with you soon.
Much Love,
Mom

Dear Katie,
It is 0200 and I am in my 3rd cup of coffee. I am having a horrible time concentrating on all this paper work tonight and everyone's converstaions are running togther. I am looking forard to going home SLEEPING!!! The 4th night is usually kind of hard to get through,
There is a new nurse who started last week, she is rally big but sems rally nice. She has been so friendly and she likes coffee which is a lost tradition lately. I hope she stays nice and maybe we can become friends.
I will talk with you soon.
Love, '
Mom

Your in the home stretch and things appear to be looking great! Just to remind you. A bit of advise from a past prisoner many times over: become one with your cell. It will be easy to say goodbye but hard at the same time. Your situation is (legally) different than mine but maybe the principles remain the same.

Keep the posting coming, I too become concerned when I have nothing to read.

Curtis

ps- $60 in the tank today and it will be gone tomorrow. AHHH! the things you have to return to.

Bitter tasting skittles ... :o)

Katie,
Perhaps some of your lack of appetite has to do with hospital food. I mean, I can't believe they are passing off pills as skittles! If I had a nickel every time someone tried to do that to me in high school... hee hee.

I'm glad to hear you are doing well! I'm cheering for you up here in Portland!!!

Lisa

Katie,
I've been reading your blog and am very happy to hear how positive you are and your terrific sense of humor. Working in hospitals, I often see people that give up or don't even bother to educate themselves that much about their illness. I think it goes such a long way when someone like you can remain not only strong and knowledgeable about leukemia, but also have a kick ass attitude, it is so admirable and totally humbling.
Thinking about your and your family every day,
Karen

Today Bob's parole from the Mayo Clinic Orthopedic Department ended. The formalities required several x-rays and a pep talk from the surgeon whose titanium plates and wire will forever remain in Bob's ankle. Seven months have passed since Bob broke it. I can only be grateful for modern medicine. Bob has the full range of motion in his ankle. This would not have been the case even fifty years ago.

Some of you reading this work in medicine. Think about it--how long has it been since you heard of an "exploratory" operation?" With CTs, MRIs, PETs, and other whiz bang machines, doctors have a pretty good idea what is going on before they operate. Bob's orthopedist knew how bad the breaks were--bad, bad.

Katie can walk around her unit with a trolley! Medicines will be administered at a constant rate from the battery-powered machine at the heart of the trolley. Cool--and unknown before Sputnik. Medicine as practiced today owes a great deal to the space program--miniaturization, for one thing.

My head spins when I think of all of the advances that are contributing to your treatment, Katie. Sometimes it can seem as if so much money is lavished on space shots and particle beam accelerators and strange sounding research grants. Then I think of Bob walking normally and Katie getting BMT, and every cent is worth it. Kinda makes me proud to be a taxpayer. There's nothing like a human face to put science in perspective.

We are connected in so very many ways that don't seem obvious at the start. We see Katie from the particular vantage point of our experience with her. Each comment reveals how special she is and how special her friends are. I hope you have had a good day, Katie--and you, too, all you readers.

Eva

Katie:

I'm very glad to have found your blog. Keep your cute chin up; you will be in the homestretch soon.

Liz

Katie, We're hanging with you all the way. I'm off to LA today. Ed, Becky and Beth are already there for a send off weekend and Beth's final farewell to LMU.