We don't know what we are doing here

12/20/11 
Really.  We don't know what we are doing here.  This seems like the easiest way to send info to the people who want to stay informed without being intrusive.  I will undoubtedly bore you so feel free to leave as you wish. 

Exactly one week ago, Lori was busy getting a bite to eat before going to UH city council; I was monkeying around the kitchen getting milk for all the kids when the phone rang.  I looked at caller id and saw that it was our pediatrictian.  Leslie had gone to the doctor that afternoon; she had been having headaches at night, strong enough to wake her up, intermittent fevers.  She was frequently tired, and just generally didn't seem like herself.  Kindergarten was reasonably new to her, and we figured that her teacher was just working her too hard.  I look at the caller id, glance at Lori - she's all hectic trying to get out and wondering why kids don't have any milk - and take the call. 

"Hi Joe, this is Dr. XX" (am I allowed to use names here?), pretty pleasant here, nothing odd, no bells or whistles.  "Leslie had some blood work done this afternoon and I want to go over some of the results."  This made me perk up a bit, and I told her that I would get a pen and pad.  Hemoglobin 7,800, normal 11,000 - platelet 43,000 normal 130,000 - white blood count 1,700 normal 8-10,000. So much noise was going off in my head I barely heard the doctor say that they wanted to see us at the hospital at 8am tomorrow morning.  At the University of Iowa, not Mercy.  I knew we were fucked before she said, "we want to rule out leukemia."