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"Sooooo," she started the conversation with the word drawn out so long I knew it must be followed by bad news "we're going to need to push the transplant back another week...."
"Ok...." I said, waiting for an explanation.
"We've had some problems with the donors," she continued "the first donor didn't pass the physical, the second donor has backed out and we're now on to the third donor who has committed to do it, but can't donate until the first week of December."
"Well let's hope the third time is the charm on this one!" I said and she laughed.
"This is where it can get a little stressful, but we ended up finding 4 perfect matches for Willie so we still have one to fall back on. It will all work out, we just have to push the dates back."
She filled me in on the new appointment dates which now have us going down on November 26th. It is frustrating to keep moving the date back, be we are happy to be able to have Thanksgiving at home with Will's family before the transplant.
Willie has been feeling good, but has had a hard recovering from this last round of chemo. He has had to get a lot more blood than he has had to get on previous rounds and it feels like his recovery is stretching on and on. His hand has healed nicely from the Staff infection and his white blood cell count is up so he can be out and about.
On Friday we went back to Stanford for our usual post-chemo check up with Dr. Medieros. We were expecting to see Brian, the fellow who works with Medieros, so we were surprised with an Eastern Indian man entered the room and introduced himself as the fellow. He told us his name, but it was far to long for me to remember or pronounce. He had dark curly hair and eyes so dark brown that you couldn't see the pupil. I was reminded of Dr. Mitra who was the first Fellow we ever met at Stanford. Like Mitra, this fellow also wore a wedding ring and I instantly wondered what his wife was like. It's rare to see a wedding ring on a Stanford Dr. I imagine the demand of being a Stanford doctor is like a marriage in itself.
"How did the last round of chemo go?" he asked Willie.
Will filled him in on the Staff infection and hospital stay while the Fellow typed notes into a small laptop that he couldn't seem to balance properly on this lap. He would type with the computer balanced on one leg and we watched as it teeter tottered back and forth. I was sure he was going to type the computer right on to the floor, but he would catch it just in time and switch legs before beginning the balancing act again.
"My blood counts just don't seem to be recovering as fast as they usually do this round." Willie said.
"That's to be expected," the fellow replied, "we have given you a lot of toxic chemo in the past 4 months. The body can only recover so quickly. How is your energy level? Are you feeling tired?"
Willie shook his head to the negative then paused "Well, I have been feeling a little tired, but that is because I have been on my feet all day the last couple of days supervising a job."
The Fellow's eyes grew big and Willie quickly explained.
"I'm not doing any plumbing," he said "I'm just supervising, but I haven't been on my feet all day for a long time and I've been a little tired."
A laugh escaped the Fellow's lips and we were caught of guard.
"Hey man," he said "you have every right to feel tired after working. I can't think of anyone with Leukemia who even tries to work!"
We laughed.
He assured Willie that he can continue to do tasks from his normal life as long as he feels up to it.
He then switched gears to talking about the transplant.
"If you think these last rounds of chemo have been bad, just wait till you see what we're going to do to you for the transplant." He smiled when he said it and was obviously trying to make a joke of it, but the humor was lost on us.
There was a brief silence in the room until I flatly said
"Well that's encouraging."
He quickly back peddled
"What I mean is we are going to give you a lethal dose of chemo. The goal of the transplant dose chemo is to kill your immune system then give you a new one. It will be far worse than anything you have experienced yet."
We just stared at him. I knew he was trying to be helpful, but something about the way he was saying it was aggravating to me.
Finally, Willie spoke
"I've done really well with all of the previous rounds of chemo. I was a weight lifter before all this started and it has helped me handle the treatments better. I have asked other doctors if the fact that I have done so well with other rounds will mean I will do well with the transplant chemo and everyone says I should be fine."
I looked over at Willie. I was proud of him for defending himself. This guy didn't know Willie. He had no idea what he had been through and how relatively easy it has been for him. He knew nothing of Willie's record breaking character.
He didn't know Willie.
"I agree with that." He said, nodding his head "and you're right, if you've done well so far there is no reason to believe you won't do well during the transplant."
He forced a smile, but I felt like he was humoring us.
He examined Willie and typed some more notes in his teetering laptop.
"You look great!" He said, looking up from the screen "We're waiting on your labs to come back, but I'll get Dr. Medieros and they should be back by the time we return."
He left the room and we sat in silence for a moment.
The next time the door opened the air in the room changed.
Dr. Medieros entered liked a rock star arriving at a party. He smiled and shook our hands then tilted his head to the side and fixed his hair. He was looking as suave as ever with a crisp, pressed button up shirt and khaki pants. He was back to his usual hoop earring in his right ear which glinted in the light every time he turned his head. He rolled the stool over and said down in front of Willie.
"So what is new my friend?" he asked.
Willie gave him a brief update and he nodded, but seemed disinterested.
"Well it sounds like you are headed to transplant soon." He smiled as he said this and looked genuinely excited for us. Medieros has been the biggest champion of a transplant from day one so it must feel like a long awaited gift to see Willie find a donor.
We filled him in on the donors falling through and he nodded
"This happens all the time, but all you need is one and you'll get it. You'll be fine." He smiled and all of the anxiety the fellow had left us with disappeared.
"So do you want to meet again before the transplant? Or do you want to say goodbye now?" He asked.
"Did you hear that Willie? He's killing you off now! He's saying goodbye!" I laughed at I said it, I couldn't resist.
Medieros laughed too when he realized what he had said.
"I don't mean goodbye forever. We just don't follow any patients after they go to transplant. I may see you around the hospital, but I won't be your doctor."
I was surprised to feel a twinge of sadness at this, especially since we didn't like like this doctor in the beginning. He has certainly grown on us.
We decided that it's not worth a three hour drive to come for another check up so we said our goodbyes and relayed our deepest gratitude to Dr. Medieros.
We left his office and returned to the cancer unit where Willie received yet another unit of blood. We are hoping that will be the last one he will have to get until we return for the transplant.
Life is good for us right now. Willie is feeling good and the Giants won the world series last night! I want to believe that they did it for Willie. It's funny how many people have relayed congratulations to Willie as if he is the one that won the world series! He deserves it though. The Giants have been a consistent diversion during our whole journey and I feel like they have been the reason for many of Willie's good days.
Thank you Giants!
And may next season be as exciting as this one!
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