Chairman of the bored

Well Team, the overarching message for today is that Dad is bored out of his ever-loving skull. (Actually, his exact words were that he's "dying of boredom," but I didn't find that particularly amusing.) In fact, he's so bored, he tried to talk his attending hematologist into letting him go home early next week. EARLY NEXT WEEK! The man doesn't have a white blood cell to his name, and yet wants to climb on an airplane in four days. HONESTLY. Unsurprisingly, his doctor was unwilling to be pinned down to a date.

On the other hand, I found this encouraging: It shows he's clearly not losing his fight. The man's got things to do, and no piddling little cancer is going to get in his way (remind you of anyone else you know? Yeah, didn't think so).

Besides, I can't exactly blame him. Take a man who is accustomed to lobbying the state legislature on various healthcare issues, attending the performing arts, and serving his church in the choir and session (just to name a few), and stick him in a hospital bed? Even the most patient of men (and he pretty much is, folks) would have trouble getting excited about walking three feet when a month before he was biking 30 miles in a day. That said, he says the thing that helps the most is your emails. When you write to say you're thinking of him, that you miss him, that--heck--you baked cookies or mowed the lawn, it lifts his spirits immeasurably. If you send photos, though, please send low-resolution ones, as the hospital's wifi leaves something to be desired (in fact, "it sucks," he said, making me guffaw in shock).

He walked all on his own to the chair today, then got to sit there for about an hour and a half--progress! And although the kidneys get a little stronger every day, they may put him back on dialysis for a couple days. He and Mom don't seem concerned about that, so I won't be either.

The doctors expect to see some healthy white blood cells by early next week. So send white blood cells! Good healthy ones, the kind that hand infection a one-way ticket to Splitsville. And as always, thanks for being the best darn team a family could ask for!!