Home away from Home

A New Twist on Camping

I've been camped out at LDS hospital room E840 for the last three nights. It's not too bad. They've brought me blankets, slippers, and pillows--10 to be exact. (I am a pillow hound at home.) I sleep on a recliner that lays almost flat like a bed. It's right next to a window sill where I put my water and personal items. There's a little-used bathroom across the hall that makes it seem like I have a private bath, and a blanket warmer. The only problem is my roommate is up about every two hours in the night. At least it is warm and lighted when I have to get up in the night--not like real camping.

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A Few More Cell Everyday

The blood cell counts are starting to increase. They kept going down for over a week. Then they stayed on the bottom for about three day. Ray's had a total of 7 transfusions over the last few days: 4 units of blood and 3 units of platelets. But the last three days have shown little increases. Yippee!

For those of you with inquiring minds, today's labs were HCT 29: norm 41-53, WBC 0.8: norm 3.6-10.6, Platelets 37: norm 150-400, and the all important ANC (absolute nertrophil count) 0.1: norm 1.8-6.8.

His neutrophil count now officially registers on the lab results 0.1 or 100. I asked the doctor if the neutrophils could come from anywhere else but the new bone marrow cells and she said no. So the transplanted stem cells are starting to become blood-cell producing bone marrow cells.

Not All a Bed of Roses

Ray continues to fight nausea, diarrhea, coughing fits, and headaches. His eyelids are bruised and he had a little bleeding in his eyes because of the pressure from coughing and the low platelet count which hinders proper blood clotting. His fever has been under 101 for 24 hrs now so his bright red skin is starting to tone down. That made a new development more obvious. He has a rash over most of his body. They think the most likely reason is acute graft vs host disease and they took a skin biopsy today to get a more definite diagnosis.

Meanwhile yesterday and today they gave him diuretics to decrease his fluids because most of the umpteen meds he is receiving are mixed with a cup or more of fluid. So tonight he is breathing better and the cough has settled down. We're grateful for little improvements.

Tonight's order is for restful, deep sleep.

Home Sweet Home

Tonight, before I went down to the hospital cafeteria for dinner, Ray and I were trying to pick a DVD to watch. I left him with instructions to decide what he would like to see while I left to eat. When I returned Ray said, "I decided to wait until you got home and let you pick the movie."

I took some pictures today of our home away from home. Tomorrow I hope to be able to figure out how to get them from my phone to this blog.

Good night all.