Christmas Comes 2 Days Early

1.8

That is our early and HIGHLY desired Christmas present.  Today we had to be at the radiology center 15 minutes early for Celia to draw blood from Joe before his 7:30am radiation treatment.  The reason, since Joe's bilirubin level had risen over last weekend, there was the possibility that he would have to have his stint replaced today if the bilirubin level had risen even more.  On Monday his level was 2.6, but today, it was 1.8.  Below the magical 2.0 that we have waited for since November 18.  What this all means, no long day at Duke with Joe having to have the stint replacement procedure; he can eat and thus have his chemo treatment on schedule; he won't feel like crap for the next few days and we can have our Christmas as planned.  In other words, we can relax for the next few days!  A few tears and 15 minutes later we were at Hardee's getting our sausage biscuits and planning everything we need to get done today.   As a side note, Joe's white blood cell count is at 7.0, meaning the infection he had been dealing with last week is under control.  Now we clean the house, do grocery shopping, wrap gifts, watch the weather forecast and prepare for Christmas day which we will be spending with both our families here in Durham.

Thank you to everyone for all the good wishes and prayers.  Someone is listening.