The Name Thing

Since we have a bit of a lull in the action, now might be a good time to visit the name thing. It's a bit unusual for a girl to be named Clyde and in fact that is not her real name. Duh!

"Clyde" was born Rae Ellen, the fourth of five children born to George and Kay. The five of us, Robert, Ruth Ann, Randall, Rae Ellen and Richard, have all had a bit of "name" thing since the start in that our names all begin with the letter "R". In the fifties and sixties I guess it wasn't that unusual to do the same letter thing. It doesn't happen very often these days but once in a while you will run across it.

The "r" constant wasn't the only thing we had going for us. Look at the list and you'll see the birth order is boy-girl-boy-girl-boy. Additionally, we were born in '54, '56, '58, '60 and '62. Remarkable planning for Catholics in that era. It's a bit of a surprise that there are "only" 5 of us. Queen of Peace grade school had it's share of families with 8 or 9 kids. For some, having kids was a hobby.

Back to the topic of names and nicknames. My explanation here is likely to be "clarified" by my older siblings but the story as I remember it goes like this. Bob, the oldest, took it upon himself to re-name his youngest siblings in his teenage years. Randy, Rae Ellen and Ricky became "Butch", "Clyde" and "Chubs". Randy earned Butch by way of his perfect flat-top haircut. I became Chubs for no apparent reason as I was a fat kid only in my diaper days. Rae Ellen became Clyde because of her resemblance to our Uncle Clifford (George's brother) who was also called Clyde. I don't remember Ruth Ann having earned a nickname at that point. Her monicker, "Rooch", didn't come about until her high school years and was a gift from her friends. It was about that time that Bob became known as "Bee". I have no idea where that came from but I'm sure to get a briefing shortly after this story posts. I will update you all with the facts and corrections to the name story but this my take on how Bob, Ruth Ann, Randy, Rae Ellen and Rick became Bee, Rooch, Butch, Clyde and Chubs. It should be noted that in the last 20 years or so my nickname has changed from Chubs to Chard, the second half of RiCHARD. Aren't they clever?

Here's the latest on more clinical matters. Clyde had her first official round of conditioning chemo last Wednesday. She went in for a round of Rituxin, a monoclonal antibody normally used because it targets only cancer cells. It's stated purpose now is to help get her white blood cell count down to "make room" for the transplanted cells. She will be admitted to the hospital for a more potent round of chemo on Wednesday. She'll get treatments on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then basically hang out and recover until she receives the donated t-cells on Tuesday.

Jan, Clyde's transplant coordinator, sent me my course of Neupogen today. I will self-administer the shots on Friday through Monday and they will harvest my white blood cells on Monday.

Please keep a positive thought for Clyde. We're getting to the thick of it very soon.

If you have any clarifying comments to make about the re-naming process, and some of you will, let me know and I'll be sure to post a correction/update.

Be well.