Day +18

Today was a pretty good day. The wbc is now 0.38. ( I can't wait until we get to 1.0) The Hgb/Hct is about the same but the platelets dropped to 23,000 so Dale received platelets from donor # 8124031. (Thank you!)
Today was also the day his other port needed to be flushed. He was a little nervous about having someone new (someone other than his Long Beach nurses who knows how tricky this can be) access his port. But all was well , the port drew blood and the line flushed easily. Praise God! After the platelets were infused, Dale was able to do his exercises, play basketball and handball again. We played for quite a while. He also practiced his violin for about an hour. It took about 20 minutes to tune first. (Rick/Kathy - I think he's ready to learn a new song)
This evening, Dale and I played poker and Texas Hold'em. I thought I was winning until Dale suggested we go all in so I foolishly did and like always, Dale came up with an unbeatable hand and took all my chips. After I lost all my chips, Dale suggested we play for " chores " but I said "no". game over. He spent the rest of his evening doing homework and reading. This was his choice to sudy not punishment for taking all my chips. He also made sure Derek finished his poster that is due tomorrow. He sat in front of the web cam constantly telling Derek to get back to work. Derek gets easily distracted so Dale tries to keep him focused. We hope that all is well outside of our UCLA world. Blessing to you all.