Day Eighteen - Happy Birthday Baby!

Hope you had the best birthday yet!

Bill & Wenda from Brooklyn, NY

Mika keeping us healthy!

Emily & Mika on a rare break!

Hey Guys!

First of all, Happy Birthday to my wonderful & amazing husband! I wish I was there with you to celebrate your life & the incredible man that you are! I'm so lucky! I hope your day was extra special & somebody on board brought you cake, or sang for you!

For the rest of you, I hope your day was wonderful & filled with sunshine & laughter! Today was a great day. We were back to the hotel by noon! That's the earliest yet! It's nice to get back early, as you have the entire rest of the day to do as you like.

Unfortunately for me, that was sleep! I went to bed at 1300 & woke up at 1900! Whoops! I guess my body is telling me it needs some extra slumber to heal! Bring it on! Okay, so it makes for a boring blog, but I'm enjoying the extra rest.

I felt a little achey in my joints this morning & it has stuck with me throughout the day. I was excited about this, as I have not had a cold since 2006! So far nothing else has happened, but I'm optimistic that something will budge!

Today was the last day that John & Margaretha will be at the clinic. They will be back in 3 months, so perhaps I will see them when I am back too! Bill & Wenda were also supposed to finish today, but they have decided to stay until Wednesday. I am happy I will have another opportunity to visit with them! Wenda always wears bright coloured socks to brighten her day & in turn, it brightens my day too!

I've also met 2 lovely gals from Victoria. Inez, the Mom, is a really cool gal. I have no idea of her age - 60?70? & she has so much character! It's awesome! Her & her daughter have sailed many, many places & they are heavy into juicing & raw foods... and she's the only gal her age I've ever heard use the word 'funky' to describe something she thought was really unique!

When I was leaving the clinic, I saw Dr. Castillo at the front desk. I wanted to ask him about the one prescription I am on & how long I had to take it for. He said a long time! Then he asked how things were going. I told him my blood work showed the continued escalation of my WBC. I told him that Dr. Rubio put me on the anti-biotic, but was talking about low-dose chemo. Dr. Castillo said to follow him & took me to his office. He sat down & reviewed the blood work on the computer & said he would make me an appointment with the Oncologist. I have the appointment tomorrow to talk about how it will work & what will happen. Dr. Castillo knows the apprehension I have towards chemo, but he reassured me the low-dose they will give me will not bring with it the nasty side effects. We will see how things go tomorrow. Hopefully the antibiotic will kick in soon! Dr. Castillo said it would take about 5 days for the antibiotic to take effect. Today was day 2! I was so impressed that Dr. Castillo stopped whatever he was doing & took the time to talk to me.

So, it looks like chemo may be around the corner for me. I am not excited about it, but at this point, I am happy that I have the option for low-dose chemo & I am so excited to be done with these lumps in my neck. Let's get on with life!

Tonight I was going to walk over to Coco's for dinner to see if they had liver - let's boost the RBC count! I took Valentina out for a break before I went & while I was outside here comes a fire truck & ambulance. It stops right in front of Antonio's door! Oh dear! I walked over & asked his wife if he was going to be okay! She said he was experiencing a lot of pain & couldn't handle it anymore. They left in the ambulance. No liver at Coco's. My goodness, I hope Antonio is okay.

There you have it! That's the day! Not too much excitement, but yet, more than enough for one day! Here's to a great tomorrow & a little more energy! Love & hugs from Maria & Valentina... xxxxx