Post Thanksgiving

Dear All,

On Wednesday we returned to Mt Sinai and Bernice went through the now-familiar through evaluation and blood draw. Her WBC was higher, now up to 259. The story with the blasts is a little clearer to me now. At these elevated levels of WBC (white blood cells) Dr M says he relies on the manual blast count as being the most accurate. Measured this way her readings have been 2, 12, 9, 5 and this is encouraging. Her spleen was just slightly smaller. Dr M sometimes speculates out loud about possible relationships and we appreciate this. With the fibrosis in her bone marrow, Bernice’s body has transferred a portion of stem cells responsible for creating blood cells to her spleen — hence, its enlargement. With some spleen shrinkage it might be that some blasts (immature blood cells) are being forced out. Dr M, in looking back at past blood reports, noted that the last time her WBC were so high was just after the trauma of her terrible fall on her head in July 2010. There is much detective work in research medicine.

This Mt Sinai facility is a very warm and welcoming place where many of the staff knows Bernice and greets her with smiles and some hugs. Alice, her research nurse is a runner who appreciates Bernice’s 1984 NYC marathon run. Alice is in a “Turkey Trot” 5-mile run starting at 6:00 AM Thanksgiving morning.

Bernice’s broken wrist is not only painful but it is debilitating. A social worker from Mt Sinai is to contact us about arranging for physical therapy. We will continue weekly visits until mid-December when a decision about remaining in the trial will be made.

On Thursday morning, Thanksgiving day, Boeta came at 8:00 and helped Bernice in the shower and to dress for our trip. Aware of the dire travel warnings of packed highways we set off at 9:30 on our way to Harvey&Sandy’s in Connecticut. This is an 85-mile trip we have made countless times under many weather and traffic conditions. We had an audio book to listen to and there was no rain. As I moved along at high speed encountering very few cars I kept anticipating a glare of red brake lights but they never materialized. We arrived just after 10:40 and had made the trip in record time. Son Dave made the same trip but left at noon and he was on the road for four hours. All four of our sons were there, three granddaughters, Sandy’s dad, sister, and friend — a real family gathering. Granddaughters Rachael and Michelle living in NYC are seen more often so it was a special treat seeing Laura who is very busy and lives in Boston. Laura is much occupied finishing her PhD dissertation in organic chemistry that she will defend in mid-December. She will spend the first week in January in the warm Caribbean with friends before she moves to Chicago for her new job.

Bernice rested in mid-visit and then we all gathered for a grand banquet. We left after the meal but by this time, despite the happy visit, Bernice was exhausted. On the way she had rested in the reclined passenger seat with her feet elevated on the dashboard. We brought along a pillow and blanket and Harvey and I got her into the back seat where she closed her eyes and rested during our return trip. We again, made it home in record time. Dave left at our departure and very helpfully pulled up at our house just as I was trying to get Bernice’s prone body up out of her makeshift couch. Thank goodness for a pair of stronger, younger arms.

Boeta came today and was her usual helpful presence. Bernice and I just relaxed.

Love, Merwin