Day 10--We're into double digits!

The Roller Coaster.

Today (Sat, Jan 29) is day 10 post transplant. We continue to be on a roller coaster ride. Temp goes up and down (but it never goes much below 100). Nausea continues with some times being more intense than others. The headaches come and go. And a cough has returned, causing havoc with the nausea and headache. Tonight, once again, he is packed in ice trying to lower his 104.5 degree temp. The consensus is that the flu has returned. Actually, they figure that since he has no immune system the flu never went away. They think the anti-flu med kept it at bay. But since they stopped it 2 days ago the symptoms have become more intense. They do say that graft-verses-host disease can cause some of his symptoms but they're not certain that is actually what is happening. So we'll take the flu medication again and wait and see.

We Have Nuetrophils

Yesterday the doctor said that the morning labs showed 18 neutrophils. Granted the normal number of neutrophils is around 55, but when you're at 0, anything is an improvement. The doctor cautiously said that could be a sign of some bone marrow recovery. When we showed her the stuffed neutrophil that our son, Chad, had sent us she said, "I was wrong. He has 19 neutrophils."

Today the doctor said that he had a 0.3 WBC count (normal is 3.6-10, but again we'll take the 0.3 over 0.0 anytime) and that 30% were monocytes (normal being 0-12%). She said that typically the monocytes show up first so the above normal amount could possibly be another sign of the bone marrow recovering. Again this was said with caution.

A Night in the Hospital

It has been about 5 1/2 years since I spent a night in the hospital. Last night I had the opportunity to see how much had changed since my last overnight experience in a hospital (which was actually here at LDSH). Guess what?! Not much has changed. Things finally settled down about midnight, so we were just starting to sleep when the aid came in to take vital signs at 12:30am. Again we we're about asleep and the nurse came in at 2 am to hang a med. So I did some clock watching until about 4:30 when the nurse brought in another med. I think then I might have dozed off and on--in between giving Ray drinks of water and applying ice packs--until they came in at 6:30 to get ready for shift change. The rest of the morning is a blur. But thanks to a loving daughter, I was able to leave this afternoon for 5 hours to shower and take a nap.

Driving home late at night and going to bed alone these last 18 days since Ray has been in the hospital has been a challenge. I could tell he wanted me to stay last night but he didn't put any pressure for on me to stay. It was nice to spend a night together again even under the circumstances. The two times he took my hand during the night and smiled at me more than made up for any amount of lost sleep.

Stay the Course

So we continue on, trying to keep flu symptoms and medication side effects tolerable until the bone marrow starts its major recovery. The doctor said as soon as Ray gets some white blood cells, they will start healing the sores in his alimentary system as well as combat the flu virus, giving him some major relief from these symptoms. A properly functioning human body is amazing.

The care here is wonderful. The caregivers--aides, techs, nurses, and doctors alike--are attentive, knowledgeable, eager to help, great team players, and compassionate. I can feel they are all working to help Ray achieve the best possible outcome with the least amount of discomfort as possible.

The compassion shown by the PA, Ali, today was touching. We met her several weeks ago on one of Ray's chemo hospital stays but we haven't seen her since then. She sat down on Ray's bed today and told him how sorry she was that it has been so rough. She told him to hang in there and promised him things would get better. Then she said firmly to Ray, "So promise me you'll hang in there, okay?" With that kind of a request, he couldn't say no.

So I pass that on to all of you. "Promise me you'll hang in there, okay?"

Our love to you all.