Well, aren't you powerful ones.....!

..... who pray, who visualize, who dream, breathe, meditate upon, cross fingers for, create good intentions for... all! The white blood cells, neutrophils, fevers and platelets shrieked in the presence of your strength and hightailed their formerly resistant fannies (if you're British, this means bums) straight into THE RIGHT COUNTS!

I'm writing this from home. 

And I didn't get here by myself. Will you please stand up and give yourself a round of applause? Pour a nice cuppa or a stiff one (I'm going to get cross-Continental hell here, but who cares), breathe peacefully or shout ecstatically - your prayers et al have totally helped me become SPRUNG!

Thank you! And Thank You, God. It's been one Mr. Toad's Wild Ride since Oct. 27th. I was released on Day 25 of this whacky and baffling episode of Diane Goes to the Hospital. 

The phlebotomist at 5:45 am was Nicole, whom I'd met once before. Kind, real, present. No one came into my room without a socially pleasing greeting followed immediately by something to the extent of, "I'm rooting for my white counts & neutrophils! Then I can go! Isn't that great?" People were getting pumped. After Nicole gently drew blood, she held the vial up to my glorious gallery of cards, photos and religious icons, making a slow sweeping motion from right to left. "Take in all this energy," she said to the vial. I blessed the sample with her. We wanted it to be a winner.

It was. 

While these are not the only things having been working in my favor, they were the most exciting for me personally. Of course I got filled to rolling eyeballs with IV antibiotics. And since Monday of this week, I was given one shot a day (subcutaneously) of Neupogen and watched the fireworks of white count boosting on a daily basis. Was this a quick fix? Of course it was. Will my counts go down to some extent now that it's been removed for now? Yes. Neupogen has been used, studied, put in clinical trials, argued over and finally accepted after many years. I didn't care that it was a booster shot. It was my ticket, and as much as I hate needles - and received continuous opportunities to encounter this attitude - it came at the end of one. Sometimes painfully. This is already with the IV deal going. In 5 days my overall white blood count went from less than 300 (.3) to nearly 5000 (4.9). I don't ever remember getting a blood test in the past 10 years with that number! We rooted for a thousand and quintupled it! And the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) which was practically unchartable right after the chemo (meaning ZIP) went from nearly zip to 354 to nearly 3000! We blew past a thousand so fast it didn't see us coming!

I am so so so grateful. (Perhaps we could form a Winning Lottery Grand Prize Manifestation Club!)

I'm also pleasantly tired. 

I get to sleep in my own bed without being tied to an IV drip. I will be able to awaken without some cheery nurse coming into my room around 6 am to do my vitals, preceded or followed by someone drawing blood. I will not be asking nicely to have the borrowed thermos from Stacey filled with boiling hot water for the PG Tips tea Ruth & Davy sent me from Rafford, Scotland. I can boil my own water. I think I want a month to sleep in, just to show my body that I can. My friends around me continue to offer their love and 3D support (shopping, chores, walking partners, etc). Wow! 

My friend Alan picked me up by 2 pm and brought me home. We stopped en route at a local barber's college to get the remaining 94% off of my head. Since I am ordered not to use a razor blade (bleeding issues), it's not Mr. Clean clean but we won't dwell on what it had become. We then raided the local Monterey Market (a Berkeley legend) for food, glorious food. My favorite coffee place for fair trade Sumatran since I'm ready to train to become wired again, then the Hopkins Bakery for a sugar cookie shaped like a turkey. That was IT. Tired Diane was brought to her little place and writes to you from here. 

I'm still in the woods but I am no longer quite as lost nor tangled in a brier. And I can see a lot more light. 

I think I'll walk towards it now..........