Happy Birthday, Margie!

Spoke with Cathy and Margie today:
Cathy's 1st of two blood draws got off to a bit of a rocky start. Her calcium levels dropped, so needed more calcium,
then anxiety which constricts veins, can't have that, so adavan (sp) then something else that i can't remember for some other symptom. So, by 3 pm, she was 1 and 1/2 hours into a 3 hour blood draw which pulls blood from one arm
spins, and sorts it. Then over to research to count and pull out the stem cells for Margie. Blood left overs back into Cathy.

When I spoke to Cathy tonight about 6pm, she sounds wiped out (no kidding!) and then scheduled for tomorrow for the same thing at about 11 am. Richard is there taking care of her in Seattle: get that calcium down her, make sure she's got the nutrients to stay strong tomorrow.

Today of course, Margie's birthday: From what I got on cell phone conversations- cake, balloons, lots of cards in the mail and lots of time next to Cathy at the Hutch, watching Margies "cure" coming out of Cathy.

What a birthday and then tomorrow of course, anticipated for months: how could something called a "mini" be so big???
There's nothing mini about it to me.
Tomorrow Ist thing: blood draws as usual for Margie then onto the full body radiation, then in the afternoon the transplant commences at the University hospital. She'll be there for the night and then the 100 day count begins.

So much can or CAN'T happen in that 100 days. We all hope and pray for what won't happen.

Love, Kathleen