Good afternoon — I took today off as I have some PTO that expires/disappears soon if I did not use it. My morning involved testing out a new to me biscuit and breakfast place and then donating platelets. I’ve been giving platelets a couple of times per month since the summer as pediatric cancer patients like Claire need them. The Red Cross e-mails me every time they ship my platelets and I think that I’m part of a small group that are sending platelets to a particular patient as five of my last six donations have gone to the same, small hospital in the middle of nowhere.
Claire is doing well all things considered. She is in her fifth round of chemo and treatment at the moment. She is getting blood products a couple of times a week which has helped her tolerate the treatment. As far as I understand, her numbers range from being good to really good. This and the prior two rounds of treatment have been designed to blast out the unobserved and unobservable cancerous cells. Assuming the next few weeks go as anticipated, she should be released from the hospital in the middle of February.
And after that, she is in the watch, wait and closely monitor stage of her treatment. It will have been a very long and tough nine months for Claire and her family.
Right now, what Claire and plenty of kids like her need are blood donors. If you are capable of donating blood, please do so. You get to help Claire or someone like her out while also getting cookies. That is a good trade in my book.