Thinking of Tomas...

[Stan]

Stan,

A reminder, I'm lefthanded
We're off to Walter Reed now to get our azimuth for the next stage of treatment.

S/F

Paul

Paul,
From one southpaw to another, left-handed people are generally considered smarter. There are however exceptions. The Aussies have put together a brain functionality test, in order to weed out those southpaws that don't make the grade.

Most of the successful examinees typically join the Army and the marginal cases that the Air Force won't take...Well

Sadly, during initial tests with Goesh (who waited for the dancer to perform a striptease), meandered into a dream state and could no longer answer the quiz. The doctors were however able to save him with a vodka drip

Good luck today at Reed, Stan

[Ken White]

Being another southpaw, she first went CW, then with a blink and a will to reverse, she went CCW. I could turn her virtually in either direction easily.

Does this mean I'm bisexual?

More importantly, What Stan said on WR...

[Tom Odom]

Does this mean I'm bisexual?

Isn't it a little last to be asking that?

[Ken White]

(though SHE limits my options in that field...)

[Stan]

Being another southpaw, she first went CW, then with a blink and a will to reverse, she went CCW. I could turn her virtually in either direction easily.

Does this mean I'm bisexual?

More importantly, What Stan said on WR...

Hey Ken !
Ya know, there was a trailer to this test that the females demanded to ...shall we say...balance the scales

Menopause and brain function

Some women say that their memory is worse after menopause.

Not real bad news actually...removes many instances of Coyote Ugly and has proven to save normal males willing to chew themselves outta relationships

[Ken White]

I showed HER the dancer, I'm not about to show HER the other one.

[nichols]

Okay, it may be time to lock the house doors, windows, cars, bring the children in and disconnect the internet.

Let me see if I have this straight;

Stan, the ole crusty SNCO is posting about neurology and physiology.

Could Stan possibly be the SWJ Leonardo DaVinci or Savant?

or

Has someone taken the Sports Illustrated magazines out of his bathroom?

BTW, We took Tomas to Walter Reed last night. No problems, I just didn't have the warm & fuzzy when I changed his bandage before we secured his libo yesterday.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tomasnichols

[goesh]

Stan knows revenge is best served up in a deliberate manner, cold and calculated, when least expected. Vodka drip indeed!

[nichols]

Update on Tomas.

Saturday when I was changing his bandage, the catheter insertion site didn't look right. I paged the doctor and told him that I didn't have the ole warm & fuzzy looking at Tomas. No fever or discomfort on his part, my women's intuition just didn't feel right. The good doctor said it shouldn't be a problem and to bring him up on Monday. I offered to email a picture (NOT Stan's kind) of what I was talking about, he gave the check roger.

He called after he saw the picture, said a picture is worth a thousand words and told us to go ahead and take him to Walter Reed. We arrived about 90 minutes later (We need to make an air alert bag for Tomas). By that time, he was admitted, IV & anti-biodics were started. Tomas wasn't stressed, we spent two days in the hospital.

AAR came back with he didn't have an infection but by Monday it was likely that he would have......gotta love those pre-emptive strikes. They're going to bring this picture idea up at the next staff meeting.

[marct]

Glad to hear that the pre-emptive worked!

BTW, there's been a lot of work done on "Distance medicine" using web cams and live audio feeds. You may want to mention that to your doctor as well since it would allow him to actually "look" at any possible problems. If he's passing around the picture idea at Walter Reed, they may think about putting a triage nurse online 24/7 (we've done a variant of that in Ontario).

Marc

[nichols]

We're back from Walter Reed and the weekly pm. Tomas has dropped to 52.5 lbs, this is good. During the induction phase he was looking like the Pilsbury Doe boy.

His ANC is 2400, life is good!

Now let's see if Stan can tell us what ANC means.

[Stan]

Hey Paul,
I had this feeling that Friday would come and go with yet another Marine thingy called revenge

Glad Tomas is doing well ! I was told that at that age, a little weight was OK and would eventually be burned off with activity. Mine, as you recall is 7. She'll destroy an 8 oz. steak right off the grill !!!

As for ANC, I immediately went to Acronym Finder

For those who served above the equator (that's you BTW), ANC translates to African National Congress or Why South Africa Sucks (no, I didn't know there was such a site). For the rest of us, cornbread, that translates to Army Nurse Corps

Actually Paul, I haven't the foggiest clue

[nichols]

Stan,

While Tomas was on the induction stage.... He was eating hourly

Good ANC answers

Here's the scoop:

Blood counts of children being treated for leukemia fluctuate wildly. White blood cell counts can go down to zero or be above normal. Red cell counts go down periodically during treatment, necessitating transfusions of packed red cells. Platelet levels also decrease, requiring platelet transfusions. Absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) are closely watched as they give the physician an idea of the child's ability to fight infection. ANCs vary from zero to in the thousands.

[Stan]

Paul, you missed your calling...you should have been a doctor

I be just a tad smarter

My best to you and yours, Stan

[nichols]

Paul, you missed your calling...you should have been a doctor

I think I'd be in prison by now if I were a doctor. I couldn't get a link to the anc data because I was getting the oil changed & state inspection done on my car and I only had a Blackberry with me.

Any of the wierd acronyms that I put in this thread just do the ole google search with leukemia attached:

anc leukemia:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Be advised though Stan, because of my undieing love for you Army types, I may through some curve balls in there

Should have seen the look on the doctors (Army Major) face when after we were debriefed by him I asked him if we could switch gears, he replied yes so I asked him to provide the following:

Triage questions and answers for civilian and military people.

I explained that the company that is making the Dari game has offered to put those into the skill builder since some Soldiers from the 1st ID requested it. Of course without going out of scope on the contract. I may love dem dar Army types but I ain't gunna let da Corps get a blackeye over it.

[nichols]

this is what I posted on tomas' Carebridge site, I guess it's okay to post here:

I'm on my first business trip to Orlando since Tomas' dx.

Yesterday was pretty interesting, we drove down to Fredericksburg to get a desk for Tomas for his kindergarten homework that he has been doing. We thought that we would pick it up them so we took Lenka's stationwagon and my car. The intent was to drive home with Tomas and Anna in my car while Lenka and Teresa drove with the desk home. We purchased a desk that should keep him happy thru the teen years, we avoided the kiddie desks for that reason. The desk is due to be delivered on the 6th of November.

We looked across at the mall and determined that it was to crowded to go to, at this point we drove back north, Lenka and Teresa in lead, Tomas, Anna, and I in trail. Lenka took us to the Stafford Regional airport, the kids were able to go up and touch the airplanes and checkout the medivac helicopter. Good call on Lenka's part, the younger kids loved the visit, Teresa hit the boredom button about 15 minutes into the visit.

Teresa wanted to do some shopping afterwards, so I kept Tomas and Anna with me. I took the lead on a road that I hadn't been down before. It is one of those country backroads that you have to be careful on, in the blink of an eye you could find yourself across the country with no clue as to how you got there. Eventually we lost contact with Lenka and Teresa. I was under the impression that the road that we were on eventually lead to Garrisonville Road so I initially wasn't worried. Tomas and Anna figured out that we had broken contact (including cell phone) with Mom so they started to get concerned that we would never see her again. After the 10 mile circle that we did and ended up at the same 1800ish church I decided to just head East and hope to find I-95 before the sun set in the west. After about 10 minutes of driving east, both Tomas and Anna shouted "turn here." I turned the car around and took the turn that they told me to figuring it would calm (they were doing the typical kids stuff of goofing off while I was trying not to panic) them down and eventually I would get some type of comms with the cell phone. As we drove down the road, Tomas pointed out to a church and said that they park schoolbuses there, I'm thinking they park a lot of schoolbuses at churches. The two continued to mess with my brain cell by saying things like "there will be a white fence coming up soon." The kept on claiming that this was the way to their school from last year. As they are telling me about the next landmarks coming up; I'm thinking to myself, no way, I've navigated all over the world both on land and water with no landmarks and there are two preschoolers in my back seat.....backseat driving. We started to get closer to civilization, a redlight was coming up (it was the first one in what felt like 3 hours), Anna announced "turn right."

We were on Garrisonville Road about 3 miles from home.

Shift gears now.

Tomas was itchy last night, I'm praying that it isn't a long night for Lenka. I ended up sleeping in the chair next to his bed with my hand on his bed to feel when he would start scratching.

On a side note, Lenka needs additional training, I drive a 2004 Mustang, she drives a 2004 Volvo V70R. She has more horsepower and her car is faster then mine.

So much for Europeans being fast drivers

[Stan]

We were on Garrisonville Road about 3 miles from home.

Shift gears now.

Tomas was itchy last night, I'm praying that it isn't a long night for Lenka. I ended up sleeping in the chair next to his bed with my hand on his bed to feel when he would start scratching.

On a side note, Lenka needs additional training, I drive a 2004 Mustang, she drives a 2004 Volvo V70R. She has more horsepower and her car is faster then mine.

So much for Europeans being fast drivers

Hey Paul,
I've been keeping up at the Carebridge site. Thanks for the updates.

Pardon my ignorance, but the itching part is related to ?

Is driving a European car in the States like trying to retain WAWA

I hate to say this, but the V70 is like...hmmm, how to break this to you...made like in Turkey

Did your better half make it home faster with that Volvo, or at all the same evening

Regards, Stan

[nichols]

Tomas lost his hair last week so I managed to misplace mine.

The Doctors are shaving their heads at a pub in Bethesda.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/event_info.html?EventKey=2008|316

If you want to donate, and do the most damage, Jacob W under the top fundraisers is an Air Force Captain.

[nichols]

We're kicking off this year's efforts to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphomia Society. We found out about the walk 5 days before the walk; 3 weeks after Tomas was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We ended up raising $1,900.00 USD in 5 days. We are shooting for $15,000.00 USD this year.

Ultimately the research may help to discover a treatment that doesn't destroy the children's immune systems. Immediate future specifically as applied to Tomas, the research may help discover ways to fix the damage that is being done to him by the chemotherapy.

If you can donate feel free to. You can also sign up as a walker for Team Tomas and hold an event and raise funds in your locality. Childhood cancer has no borders, the research also has no borders.

Team Tomas site is:

http://www.active.com/donate/ltnRichmo/2335_nichols63

The event is on 4 October.


His Caring Bridge site is:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tomasnichols

Thanks.

[nichols]

Okay guys,

Today Jacobs ASG donated $1,000.00 USD to Team Tomas. He's shooting for 15k by October, your geographical location is irrelevant. The company that you work for can sign up to help raise these funds for Team Tomas.

http://www.active.com/donate/ltnRichmo/2335_nichols63

The leukemia & lymphoma society (LLS) funds research and assistance for blood cancers.

Tomas' system is being carpet bombed, we don't have a JDAM for leukemia. There are multiple problems for him in the future from cognitive to physical...these funds will the LLS find ways to correct the damage that is being done to these children.

If you can give, much appreciated, if you can pray for these children, very much appreciated.

Thanks

S/F