Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Transplant Day 21

Today we have had mixed blessings. I guess I will start with the beginning of our day. First this morning the doctor came in and said they were going to put the feeding tube in today-that the nurse had told me wrong last night. They checked Doc's platelets this morning since they were going to do the procedure. They were back down to 12 so they gave him platelets before he went down to xray.

After that they had another doctor come in and look at Doc's eye again. They are afraid that maybe the shingles is coming back even though Doc doesn't have any symptoms except the swollen eye. (We were told before when he did have shingles that he wasn't contagious if he didn't have any open sores.) Because of the possibility of shingles they decided to move Doc to the 8 floor ICU. I was not very happy with this plan, because they do not normally let the family stay with the patient on that floor. Doc is still having a hard time making everyone understand him with the mucus problem he has at the back of his throat and the soreness from the chemo. He always has a harder time then most people, because of his previous cancer. I get frustrated when a doctor or nurse can't understand him and then they just ignore him unless I interpret for him. They finally agreed to let me stay in the room with him when they realized it was for their benefit as well as ours. I am thankful for answered prayers again.

The doctors lanced a small area near his eye today to test. If it comes back clean tomorrow afternoon with no trace of shingles they will let him go back down to the transplant floor. Part of the problem with being up here is that as of the time I am writing this blog (9:21 pm) this floor doesn't have any orders for Doc. Most of what they have done so far is what I have told they did downstairs.

When the doctor came in this afternoon he told me that they found another bag of stem cells that Doc was supposed to get from his original donor. The plan right now is to do an infusion tomorrow morning. Hopefully this will help to bring up his counts sooner. I can't help but be a little worried even though I am trusting our Lord to heal him. I just have a hard time especially when I am as worn out as I am.

I talked to the nurse at 6 tonight and asked her if they were going to draw labs (they usually do it at 4). Since she didn't have any orders she didn't know what to draw. I told her the tests we have been following so she drew some blood and ran them. She said if they want something else they could just run it when they get the orders. Most of those labs are back. His bilirubin is up to 21.2. He is looking very yellow. I don't know how high it can go before I really have to start worrying The kidneys are stable, in fact they are a little better. Because of the mix-up and the lack of orders I don't know what the neutrophils are tonight, but I do have some good news. His white blood count is now up to .4. I know it isn't a big jump again, but it is up and I am sure that the neutrophils will also be up when I get those results tomorrow. There is a special formula that the transplant floor uses and the nurse tonight doesn't know what that is. I am very thankful that they are going up. Hopefully tomorrow's stem cells will help bring these counts up more.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. With most of Doc's problems there is improvement. God is listening.

Teresa

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