Riding for Roses

Spencer was in at the oncologist today with our Discovery Network entourage to tape some of it. Like Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich, Spencer had an unexpected crash before the Tour de France—his absolute neutrophil count is 300 which qualifies as severe neutropenia, and means he is at high risk for a bacterial infection. We are going to go ahead and have him attend the first day of Tour Watch but we’ll have to keep him home at least until July 8 and maybe another week. In order to attend the Tour Watch, we have anti-bacterial precautions in place. That includes frequent handwashing (we do dry handwashes with Purell in between washes with antibacterial soap) for Spencer and anybody coming into contact with him. We will try to minimize the number of other people who come contact with him. We will also have him wearing a protective mask to reduce exposure.

So, if you want to meet Spencer at the Tour Watch, please visit Central Market North on July 2, 2005, between 9 AM and 3 PM —the earlier the better. We’ll keep him there as much as he and we feel comfortable with, but then we’re hightailing it home to get away from bacteria.

Otherwise, the chemotherapy went well. He had no problems with nausea, though he is pretty tired. He cleaned everybody out in special Spencer Rules Monopoly, which I gather basically involves Spencer buying most of the property with extra money from the bank before the dice are rolled even once, but then giving the other players generous gifts from the bank so they can pay him rent when they land on his properties.