Transplant Day 17

I can't Praise the Lord enough!!!! I hadn't posted the blog yet tonight when the nurse came in and told me that Doc's neutrophils went up to 100 tonight. That isn't a lot yet, but this is the first time that this has happened this hospital stay and it is the first sign that the transplant is taking. Thank all of you for your prayers. I will leave the original blog I was going to post. I am tired and would like to get to bed soon. It went as follows:

Praise the Lord Doc had a better day today!! Last night Doug, Doc's best friend for years came, in from Ohio to visit. He got in late, but I sneaked him in to see Doc last night. Doc was so excited to see him. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much Doc rejoiced. It was great, because I hadn't seen him that excited in a while. I also told Doc that the kids were coming to visit today. He got a big smile on his face.

Most of our children came in today to see us. Jon won't be able to be here until tomorrow. I think it is good that we are spacing the visits out some. Doc really enjoyed visiting with everyone. He was more alert today than I have seen him in a long while. It was great to see him smiling again and enjoying listening to everyone. He is still having a lot of trouble talking right now. His throat is a lot better, but his mouth has become so dry from the medicine they are giving him that is very difficult for him to talk right now. I do know he really enjoyed their visit even though he is worn out tonight.

Last night after Doug left Doc's labs came back. His liver had been doing a little better, but tonight it is a lot worse. It went up to 12.5. His kidneys are also getting worse again. His creatinine is up to 2.8. He won't need blood tonight, but he will need platelets again. The good thing about the platelets is, the last couple of nights I have gradually seen his platelet count increase each night. I think he may be starting to retain some of the platelets. His white count is still at 100 again, but I am not too excited, because we have seen it here before and it has gone back to zero. Today when the doctor came in he said they have decided to start Doc on the white blood cell transfusions. They are going to start giving them to him tonight. He also said that they have asked the donor for more stem cells to give him a boost. Doc is also running a fever again. It is 101.2 tonight. It had gone down to normal last night late and stayed there until late this afternoon. The nurse is wanting to delay giving Doc the platelets because of the fever. He has had a higher fever before and they have given him the platelets, but they don't like to give them when they have a high fever. The nurses have said that the fever can eat up the platelets.

I think seeing everyone has given Doc a great spiritual boost, but we are still at the same place if the counts don't start coming back up, but we know that God is in control. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Teresa