Darren LeBlanc

Today was wonderful…till about 3pm.

We got up early and made it over to the hospital for about 8:30. This is early enough that we weren’t waiting with a bunch of people already in the queue for blood-work and the such. So by 9:45 we had gotten Misty’s blood-work back and were starting on her chemo. First big point; Misty’s nurse (Eileen, who by the way literally came in to the hospital on a Saturday a couple weeks back (her day off) to give Misty a Neupogen shot. This saved us hours of waiting in an uncomfortable waiting room. It’s great to see there are still nice people left in the world!) – Anyway, she was pleasantly surprised to find Misty’s platelets well up since last time. This is good because patelets are what caused Misty to miss a treatment a few weeks back (and we expected that it could be a problem again).

So the blood is good, we get the treatment and we are on the way home – still feeling good. Now, today was the send-off lunch for my boss (Rich) and a co-worker (MAJ Togisala). Rich’s family is moving to Aberdeen MD in a couple weeks as he has taken a different job and MAJ T is off to Germany. I’ve wanted to go, but I literally haven’t been away from Misty (other than to run into the store while she is in the car with her mom and one quick trip to my office) in over a month.  Since she had been feeling so well, however, I decided to go to the lunch (at Houlihan’s). It turned out very nice and I’m glad it did. Rich has been a really great boss to me and he has my utmost respect. And while he has been extraordinarily knowledgeable technically, that’s not what I appreciated most. He has been an example of a boss that cares more about the people under him than about the product he is producing. I have always felt that was the way to lead…so I always appreciated Rich. Needless to say, with everything going on, I’m quite lucky to have such a great work environment. 

Here is the gallery, featuring some of the characters that I work with:
Rich Hoffmann and MAJ Togisala – Lunch

Now for the bad part. After Misty woke up from her afternoon nap, she was sick. Completely sick. She hasn’t felt this sick in weeks. She ate a muffin and fresh blueberries for breakfast, but that was the end of it. We tried to drink, but that was only marginally successful. She was quite sick all afternoon and into the evening. I’m really hoping she wakes up feeling a good bit better. Tune in tomorrow to find out how that goes..same bat time, same bat channel. (yes, I know I’m corny)