Quick update I just received from my parents and brother Frank who are at the hospital with Bill now. The doctor came by to check on him this morning and told us his white blood cell count is at 49,000 which is still good and shows the chemo is working. His body is vigorously trying to make more white cells and it seems the chemo is doing a good job at killing them as they reproduce. We are looking forward to the day when there are ZERO of these cancer ridden white bloods in his blood (although we will need to make sure he does not get exposed to any infections as his white blood cell number drops!).
He seemed to have a decent night sleep - he is still getting used the sleeping in a hospital with the beeping noises from the infusion machine and the nurses coming in during the night to give him medication and take his blood - but hopefully he will start to sleep better as he gets more comfortable with his surroundings - we don't want him to get too comfortable though cause we want him to come home!! He is still eating well which is fabulous! He had some scrambled eggs and bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. My dad says he is trying to figure out a way to get the soccer matches on his TV (surprise surprise!) - so we will need to figure that out so he can continue to cheer on Ireland !
He is checking this blog regularly (Hi Bill!!) and is enjoying all your comments as well as tracking which countries are visiting this website. We are trying to get representation from the 7 continents (Antarctica might be a stretch..) s0 if you can help us with that, we appreciate it!
As I mentioned earlier, he is staying at the Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis. We can not say enough good things about this hospital so far! The nurses and doctors are so helpful, friendly and informative. The hospital itself is kind of like a hotel (seriously..) - Bill is trying to figure out a way to collect frequent flyer points from his time here ;) He has his own private room which is quite spacious and has his own private bathroom with a shower. The room has big windows with great natural light and a nice view of the downtown Barnes & Nobles bookstore (so Bill has plenty of access to his newspapers and magazines). There are automatic screens that he can set to completely darken the room, just let in a little bit of light, or to put up completely and have full light. There is a flat screen TV and a DVD player, a fridge which we have stock piled with Bill's favorite treats and plenty of closet space. There is pull out couch which my mom has been using to sleep there and chairs for us to sit in - it truly is the nicest hospital room I have been in. There is also a ton of space for our family and other visiting families - lots of visiting areas, private rooms with phones, a mediation room, a few TV rooms, computers for us to use, free wireless, a cozy fireplace, microwave/fridge, washing machine and dryer, coffee machines - so much! Bill better be careful or we might all move in with him (we have already brought down a tea kettle, irish tea bags and mugs for our frequent tea breaks!) :) There are also hand sanitizer distributors every where in the hallways, so we all use these regularly - actually every time we go into Bill's room to make sure we are not carrying any infections. Most importantly, I have not smelled the "hospital smell" once the entire time I have been there - I hate that smell and appreciate its absence - it is so clean!
Ryan and I will be heading into the hospital in a few hours, so I will write another update once I have seen Bill today - keep praying and thank you ALL so much - Bill and our entire family appreciates your support so much!!
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