Off to Germany--A Very Brief Update

Dave's Great Adventure, Book 2
Postscript 4
September 12, 2004
We're off!

I wanted to send out a brief message to all my friends to let all you know that we're going to be able to go to Germany despite my white counts being low. I was afraid we would have to cancel all our reservations.

I repeated my blood counts again after my last message and found that my white cell count, and especially the neutrophil counts, had dropped yet again. I discussed this with my doc, and he said we could go on the trip, but that he wants to do another bone marrow biopsy was soon as I get back. And, he gave me a bottle of new and improved antibiotics, a kind I'd not heard of, just in case I were to get ill during the trip.Has anyone out there heard of moxifloxacin? I guess they're pretty powerful.

On this trip Kathy will be keeping me as far as possible from crowds, sick folks, door knobs and coins. She's just great at protecting me from the bad things out there. Being on an airplane is a worry, of course, but we won't be back in steerage. Since we'll be in business class, there will be a lot of room between us and the people around us.And, I have a whole pack of masks I can put on if we detect any danger nearby. Wish us luck!

And, I'm to get another blood count during our trip. One of the first places we'll be going is not too far from Heidelberg and I'm going to stop in at the American military hospital there to get a count done.One of our friends, Dr. Brian Baker, works there part time and is going to help arrange this before we go on to their home. I delivered Brian and his wife Marcia's first child a long time ago. And, do you know that to this day they blame ME for all their child's problems, since I was the first person to lay hands on him. Now is that fair? It's been a couple of decades, after all!

It's a little worrisome being so far from home with a low white cell count and therefore a compromised immune system, but if we have any problems, I can go to the military hospitals in either Heidelberg or Landstuhl, both of which my father worked in years ago when he was in the Army. It's nice to have that care available while we're so far from home.

And so, off we go. We'll be in touch when we get back, probably after we get the bone marrow results back.

Until then,

Dave