GRATITUDES:
1. Slowly returning strength
2. Friends, both local and long-distance
3. SomaFM – an internet radio station that offers various musical style streams
4. Food (yes, I know. I’ve mentioned this one before. Fight me.😆)

Monday, Monday…

I began the day by scooting over to the local Texas Oncology office for a blood draw. I sooooo wish that all my doctors’ appointments could go as quickly as this one did – I was in and out of there in less than 10 minutes. Of course, it WAS just a blood draw. I didn’t have to wait around to be seen by any of the medical staff. Still, it was nice not to have to go packing magazines, books, food and water!

I finally began tackling the prep for the soup dumplings. I started out with the aspic – the thick, collagen-rich gelatin that forms the “soup” in the dumplings once they’re steamed. I had to cut apart a pig’s foot, which was interesting (and gross), and I was apologizing to the poor critter the entire time, but it made for some amazing broth once it had been simmered with some seasonings for a couple of hours. My next step will probably be the meat filling, which I might prepare tomorrow. I’ll need to mince up some pork fat as well and add that in because the recipe calls for a 70%/30% lean-to-fat ratio and I was only able to find 80/20 ground pork. This recipe has a lot of steps but I hope the results will be worth it. I do love a challenge in the kitchen!

I received the results of my blood work this afternoon. Dr. Santiago’s nurse told me that my hemoglobin is still holding steady at 7.5 (very low but not low enough for a transfusion) and that the other numbers looked like they were slowly recovering. So, that means that the bone marrow biopsy is still on hold and my blood will continue to be monitored. I have an appointment on Wednesday in San Antonio and another here in town on Thursday. The big “donor” vein in my right arm is beginning to bruise a bit from all the blood draws. I wish they could take it from my port but the nurse pulled out the access needle before I left the hospital and if I have another one inserted before I’m readmitted, I might have to have a nurse flush the line with saline or Heparin on a daily basis to keep it from clogging. I’ll also need to cover the port every time I shower because I can’t get it wet while the access line is in. Fun, right? Blech.