Steve and Terry celebrated Steve's good health with their friend, Heidi last weekend. They celebrated one year being essentially cancer-free after Steve's surgery on January 4th last year. They went to Lucille's BBQ near their home. Steve had his first ever martini. He tried both an apple and a light, dirty martini which he seemed to like equally, plus he had two beers over the course of the evening. They had good food, including shrimp, pork sliders, artichoke appetizers, and much silliness and fun. Steve said he had a very happy evening. enjoying the blues music, but he does not recommended drinking so much on a daily basis, hehe. Terry drove home as she doesn't drink. The boys stayed home alone (I forget Nathan is fifteen now and is plenty old enough to babysit Adam).
By now, most of you know that Steve's MRI from January 4th came out good and clear again!! Whoopee! Steve had his usual early morning MRI followed by an office visit with Dr. Hu. Dr. Hu continues to be very happy with Steve's progress and said all was great. In honor of Steve's one year anniversary of his surgery, they stopped by his surgeon's office to say thanks. Terry said Cedars-Sinai Neurology department is very different than Kaiser's had been. When they went to see Dr. Patel, they said the receptionist was more like a concierge, and was able to have them see the surgeon within a very short time. Steve and Terry expressed their gratitude and the doctor was very happy for them. He already knew Steve was doing well. Apparently, the brain cancer community is very small and the doctors all keep in touch with each other.
For those of you watching Steve's blood work, I have two numbers to report, since I was late posting the values from New Year's Eve. The blood work from Tuesday was even better. Here are the details with the first number from 12-31-12 and the second from 1-7-13:
wbc 3.6 and 5.0 This one got a lot better (we don't know why).
neutriphils (no number from 12-31-12) 3.0
rbc 4.59 and 4.64
hemoglobin 14.6 and 15.0
hematocrit 43.5 and 43.3
platelets 112,000 and 113,000
creatinine 1.2 and 1.0 (Yay, 1.0 is the top edge of normal! We decided the extra fluid from the martinis helped it, LOL.)
BUN 20 and 23
Since I haven't posted since the Christmas holiday, here's what you missed :)
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| Steve and Terry Christmas Eve at our brother's home |
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| Christmas morning 2013. Steve is the tall one, Terry's wearing the Santa hat, Nathan is next to Steve, and Adam is the small one in front. |
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| Steve and family playing a new board game with Kevin, Christmas afternoon. |
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| We forgot to take a "before" picture. Here's some of the family after Christmas dinner. Yummy food! |
