DAY 7 12/23/05

Haven't been feeling much like a writer last several days. Acid stomach has been a real battle not to mention trying to get enough liquid and calories to keep energy level up. In spite of that, we have walked to the clinic most every day - sometimes coming and going, up hill both ways in a snow storm - ha.

In the Radio business, we sometimes work with receivers which are defective and try to restore them to their factory specifications. One test we do is to inject an on-carrier signal and successively reduce it's amplitude to some predetermined amount. The weaker the signal that can be received by the receiver, the stronger and more fit it is deemed to be. Sometimes a receiver is so good, it will receive weak signals which are "down in the grass," a term we use which indicates only a slight difference between signal level and background noise.

At any rate, I was down in the proverbial grass yesterday. I think they told me my white cell cout is now down to .1 or something like that. Normal healthy people have absolute Neutrifil counts around 1.5. They started giving me small dose of growth factor beginning yesterday so my counts sound start to come back up. We are looking for three days of .5 or better to indicate I am beginning to make my own.

We talked to Mandi and Matt last night. They have Mandi in a hospital room and Matt shackled to one of the bed rails - just kidding - you couldn't pry Mat away. Shelby should make her debut very soon and we are praying for every success and that everything goes for the best for the three of them.

May God bless you and your family especially at this special time of year!