No transfusions!

This week's clinic visit was a shocker, in a good way. I didn't need any transfusions! I had gone ready to spend the day, and I hardly knew what to do with myself. Well, I can say for the first time in a long time that I didn't spend the whole day at Dana-Farber.

Platelets were 21, still very low but up from 10 to 12, where I've been hovering. My hematocrit is pretty low – 25.3 – borderline for transfusion. But since I've been doing a lot of walking, and even a little tennis, I seem to have adapted, although I am kind of sluggish. The fewer transfusions the better, so they let me go because I feel OK. My white count is normal, 6.6, and my potassium and sodium are about where they should be, although the sodium is still low. I guess I need to eat more potato chips.

I stopped to get a Starbucks and drove home in a good mood. I needed to pick up a few things from the grocery store. I was thinking about how happy I was that I had made the small (OK, tall) coffee last the whole way back, and about how nice it was to feel calm. So calm that I drove right past the grocery store.

I was almost at the library, so I decided to drop in there to return a book that I had in the car. I wandered around a minute and saw all these DVDs, so I asked whether they had one I was looking for. I don't use the library enough. I was pleased and surprised that they said they could order it from another branch and it would be there in a few days.

I had been going through an annoying hassle over this DVD. I know, small potatoes, but annoying is still annoying. Katie and I have been watching "The Gilmore Girls" on and off, and she said it would be fun to watch the whole series from beginning to end. For her birthday, I ordered the first four seasons. I went on Amazon.com and got some of them from the independent sellers who have them used but in good or excellent condition. They're still expensive, but you can get a good price on one that may even be brand new.

We waited for the summer to end, because it's a fall kind of thing. When we opened it, we found that Discs 1 and 2 both started with episodes 5-8 and were missing 1-4. I called Amazon and they said that because it was past 30 days, they couldn't do anything. They said to e-mail the seller, which I did, but they did not respond. I guess my only recourse is to write a bad review of them on the Amazon site. I usually buy books from independent local sellers, but if I want a DVD I usually go on line. Next time, I might not use the independent sellers.

In the meantime, I was going to break down and rent the first season from Blockbuster. But my car had carried me to the library, saving me the trip to the video store. So, how about this for a moral: If you take a wrong turn, you might end up in a better place than the one you passed by. Of course I did end up back at the grocery store, but all was well (Dad's words) because of my good report and my library experience.