Birthday Girl

Today is Kristi's Birthday. She is 30! Twenty-something is over. Sadly, she gets to spend her big day at the Huntsman. We are planning something at a later date. Yesterday, she had the Hickman Central Line removed. Apparently it was the source of her troubles. It was a rather invasive procedure, they had to use a scalpel and everything. To replace it, she got a new line in her right arm, which she hates. Her right arm is basically useless right now. It's very sore. She's super tired today as well. Because of the fevers, she gets vitals much more frequently. She had a low grade fever yesterday, so the clock for getting out was reset. The nurse estimates that 48 hours of normal temperature is required for her to go home. This infection will most likely require her to be in the hospital for her next round of consolidation chemo.

Addendum

For her birthday, the hospital let her go home at least a day early. She spent the after noon resting and getting the kinks in her back and neck worked out. The new line isn't much fun right now, so she's temporarily left handed. She's still dealing with the trauma of yesterdays procedures: removal of the Hickman and insertion of the new line in her right bicep. She told me that it was the worst day yet. I thought the fevers were worse, the rigors were something. She's finally sleeping. It's far better in your own bed.

Fevers and Benefits

About an hour after K's BFF, Ton, left for Portland she spiked a fever. It got up to 102.8. I called the doc, but it came down fast enough that she didn't need to go to the hospital. Today, at our 9am appointment, she got another fever, right in front of Dr. Shami. I have never seen anyone shiver so hard. Her fever got up to nearly 104. She was checked into the Huntsman 4^th floor immediately. She'll probably be there for a day or two under observation. She's on a broad spectrum of antibiotics. We are still waiting for any news on the blood cultures. Her CBC showed very elevated white blood cell counts. The blood smear didn't show any abnormal cells, so this was due to the infection, not Leukemia.

Oh, oh! I forgot to mention; Kristi's bone marrow biopsy was great. All of her numbers were good and and not a Leukemic cell in sight. Dr. Shami says that this is "Officially Remission." Which is a ver good thing. Kristi thinks this is more interesting than the fevers.

In other, funner news: Aaron Campbell has arranged what is sure to be an exciting event to support KP. Here's the blurb:
--snip--
Hi all-

This Saturday (June 2nd) there will be an alleycat race to benefit Kristi Potter! For those who don't know what an alleycat race is, you can learn about them here. In short, it's a fun bike scavenger-hunt-like "race" through the city that requires no spandex and no carbon fiber. And it even comes with a party at the end! It's a $20 donation to race, with time bonuses for extra donations (like bribing the officials, only legal). The fastest male and female racers will win custom-designed bike frames from NYC Bikes.

If you don't want to race, you can find someone who does and help them earn time. There will be a raffle with lots of cool prizes, like Black Diamond headlamps and other fun stuff.

This race is as casual as you want it to be, but if you don't want to ride, we will need some volunteers to help out. For anyone who has been wondering how to help Kristi out financially, this is the perfect opportunity. Remember, even if you don't want to ride the race all the way through, you can still get a warm feeling inside from entering the race and partying at the end (which will include beer, and a replaying of the films from the Pedal Pusher Film Festival).

If you have any questions, send an email to Miriah, Roni, or Liz for more of the scoop. We will see you there!

Please see the attached flyer for more details.

-The KPAML Project

Thursday already?

Wow, time flies. K is stronger than ever. The University paper just did a story on her. We did 20 miles on the bikes yesterday, and are planning the same for tomorrow. Her blood work looks fine, but we haven't heard back about the chest CT. Tonya is coming to visit again this weekend. It's memorial day weekend, so we going to be seriously busy, but that's a good thing.

Silver Lake

Silver Lake, Twin Lakes Trail, 5 miles.

Thanks to Abe for a generous slice of his hand made birthday cheese cake.

Super Kristi

Kristi gets in touch with her super alter ego, Sleep Girl. Her special power: she can sleep through anything. Our visit to the doctor this morning didn't bring the best news. She has a fungal infection of the liver and spleen. This most likely happened while she was neutropenic during "induction" chemo. The infection was detected first by the elevated liver enzymes and confirmed by lesions in the CT scan. She's now on antifungal meds. Originally the plan was to have her take an oral prescription, but at $30/pill, that's sort of out. Her insurance will only cover it if it's IV. So it is. She should be fine in a week or two. This news moves her next round of "consolidation" chemo back a week or so. This is might actually be a good thing, since now she won't be on chemo for her up-coming birthday. She also had her bone marrow biopsy today. We don't have the results yet. The procedure is invasive enough that she has been forbidden to lift anything for about a week. I should verify with the doc if this really means that she can't weight train at all. Would be sad, since we invested some time in setting up a little gym in her room.

Biker Porn

The Bike Collective is having a film event this Saturday. Should be fun for all, and a good warm-up for a Kristi bike event... say tuned. Kristi worked with the bike collective a few years ago to buld a super sweet single speed from scratch (for only $100).

Numbers

Kristi's blood work is looking very good. Although, her hematocrit is still dropping slowly. This isn't a problem right now, she is still in a healthy range. Just to be sure her liver functions are a-ok, she will have another CT scan on Thursday. Today, we picked up some more hand weights and a workout bench. We also picked up some protein shake mix stuff loaded with Branched Chain Amino Acids. Now we can follow Casey's workout regimne to the T.

Working Out

We are getting pretty serious about working out now. Aaron Lefohn hooked us up with his friend Casey (First Lieutenant), who is a physical trainer and an infrared optical physicist. He's designed an exercise and eating regimen for us. Right now we are doing cardio for 30min in the morning before breakfast. Our aim is to get our meals up to 4-5 times a day, with around 30g of protein per. We will do strength training 3 times a week. I have been working hard to get my cooking skill up and making good meals. We eat a lot of fish and veggies.

hiking

Excersise is primarily walking and hiking to get started. She's up to 3 miles a day. Today we drove down to Sundance. Kristi took this picture at the top of the canyon by Aspen Grove. Her follow-up check-up on thursday showed liver functions returning to normal. She seems to be feeling better and better each day. We will be getting the bikes out any time now.

Project Kristi: Day 1

Today went very well. I made K a very healthy, balanced breakfast including OJ, eggs, and greens. We hiked 3 miles up City Creek Canyon. She did great despite abdominal pain caused by her one handicap (she doesn't know how to burp!) Today was her first checkup since she was released from Huntsman. She's slowly finding out that she has quite a few more bone marrow biopsies to look forward to (though none today). All of her blood work counts are up. We hypothesize that this is due to the cytokines that she was given a week and a half ago. Although she's showing some elevated liver function. Hopefully this isn't a sign of something big, but she'll have more blood work done on Thursday to find out for sure. The doc says "Absolutely NO alcohol." He seemed disappointed in me for letting her have a beer.

Solidarity Video!

Chems Touati produced a stunning video of Solidarity Day, which also nicely summarizes Kristi's experience thus far. Music by The Shins. (They are from Albuquerque you know) Thank you Chems! You Rule!


>Low Bandwidth [17.9MB]
>Medium Bandwidth [47.3MB]
>High Bandwidth [86.6MB]

GK's Healers

Thanks to Gordon for the extremely well designed, handmade Calder-esque mobile. This work includes detailed pack/unpack instructions with a reusable box. The mobile itself has images of various healers from different cultures/religions, including Pastafarian.

Here it is hanging. That's K and mi padre.

No News is Good News

It's been a while, no? I have been ver busy in ABQ taking care of my Professorly responsibilities so that I can spend my summer in SLC. Kristi is doing just fine. (Yes GK, I swear). Kristi was very unhappy with the mangy look her hair was taking on. So, first thing this morning we "bic'ed it". Roni gave me some valuable practice shaving heads at Solidarity day. Joel, provided a strong warning.

This is graduation week at the U, but Kristi's waiting till next year to walk. Even so, we have the whole family here for the weekend (Mine and hers). I have said this before, but it's nice to reconnect with so many important people in our lives even if the circumstances are ...

I promise to keep on KP's progress from now on. (Though, when I promise something, it's usualy because I wont.) We are starting "Project Kristi" on Monday.