Day 6

Here are some pictures of MDAnderson. The first is (obviously) the fountain at the entrance of the hospital. The second is a view of the main hospital. Stan's room is on the far left of the building on the 11th floor.




Here is a picture of the "Sky Bridge" that connects the main hospital and the Mays Clinic (where many of the tests take place) There is a view form the outside and inside the bridge. They also have golf carts to take patients across the bridge.
The last picture is a "Tree Sculpture" one of the items that MD Anderson uses to identify different parts of the building.
Today is day 6. Stan's blood count continues to plummet (as expected) He does seem to have a little more energy today! We walked this morning and he is still awake ( since 8am) (it is now 1:30pm). One of the other transplant patients that we see when we walk (Fred) told us today that he may be going home soon and he is at Day 13--so we are hopeful that if Stan's blood counts begin to go up--and he continues to do as well as he has been--that he may get out of the hospital sooner than 3 weeks (and ultimately get home sooner than 100 days!!!!) We can only take it one day at a time ! We have met some very nice people as we walk who are also here for a transplant. Since everyone wears masks and gloves (and sometimes gowns) as we walk--you can only see peoples' eyes and can't tell if they are smiling or not, but we all say "Hello", ask how people are feeling each day, and congratulate each person for walking! (5 times around all 4 pods on the 11th floor is 1 mile) Right now every room on the floor is occupied (that means 52 people are somewhere in the process of a bone marrow transplant ) and there are 26 more rooms upstairs for those patients who need an even more sterile environment. This truly is an amazing place!!! So, until tomorrow--have a good day!