Slow and steady wins the race

Our big fear going to the clinic today was that Eric would have to have a four-hour whole blood transfusion.  He has been on the borderline for two weeks, and if his hematocrit dropped even .1, we knew we would be held hostage at the bone marrow transplant clinic all day.  Happily, his hematocrit went up .4, meaning we were in and out of the clinic in less than two hours AND his blood work is all headed in a positive direction now.  Great news!

The doctors love to ask us if we are still getting out walking because they are so happy to see their star patient doing so well.  On Saturday we did our first hour long walk, and it felt great!  Eric had a dream that he was swimming, and was probably a little sad when he woke up to the reality that it is going to be a long time until he can swim.  But boy can he walk!


When we were still in the hospital and each day seemed like an eternity, they told us that on Day 70 Eric would stop taking one of the preventative medications he has been on since the transplant.  That seemed so far away and out of our reach.  Today they told us that next week is the big day, and that on Day 100 they will start taking Eric off of more medicines.  Day by day we may not see many differences, but week by week, and now month by month the improvements are amazing!

Big leap forward

Today was Eric's weekly visit to the bone marrow transplant clinic.  His platelet count doubled in one week!  Pretty impressive.  His neutrophils and white blood counts are good, but his hematocrit level continues to drop.  The doctor doesn't seem too worried about his low red blood cell count because Eric isn't showing signs of being too anemic.  We take a brisk (temperature and speed) walk each morning, averaging 45 to 50 minutes.  Eric hasn't felt extra weak or light-headed as his hematocrit has dropped.  He may have a transfusion next week if it is even lower than it is now.

Eric's neutrophils and white blood cell numbers are so good we asked why he still has to be cloistered.  The doctor explained that Eric is taking high doses of immune suppressing medications that would make it very difficult for his body to fight off even the most mundane infection.  So we still request that visitors be healthy and immunized.

We also asked about how much sun exposure Eric could have.  We had been told to avoid all sun exposure by a different doctor, so we were curious.  Our doctor today said that there are several factors (residual effects from chemo, graft vs. host disease, reactions to medications) that make it crucial that Eric avoid sunburn, or even more than just a little sun exposure.  But she did say that if Eric was well covered up (easy enough to do when it is 30 degrees outside) we could walk in the morning after the sun comes up instead of before it comes up as we have been doing.  Great news!

Short and sweet

After a painfully long bone marrow transplant clinic visit last week, we were blessed to have a mercifully short visit today.  Short visits really improve our mood, even if we were to get bad news.  But such was not the case with this visit--it was all good news!

Eric's weight continues to climb, his complexion continues to even out, and his blood work continues to improve.  Neutrophils, white blood cells and platelets are up.  Red blood cells are about the same. They would have given Eric a blood transfusion today if we had pressed for one, but since that would have added four hours to our short and sweet visit, we declined.  Since Eric continues to go for long walks every morning even though he is severely anemic, we all agreed that it was better to take a "wait and see" approach on any more transfusions unless his numbers drop significantly.

I am sorry for you, dear reader, that the last few blogs have been boring.  But for myself, I love being able to check off another week on the road to recovery without any excitement or drama.  Hooray for boring!

Long lackluster day

I wish I had something amazing to report, but if you want amazing you will have to read someone else's blog.  At Eric's check up today we found out that his neutrophils were the exact same as they were last week and his platelets and hemactocrit had both dropped.  That was a bit depressing and meant we had to spend an extra four hours at the hospital so that Eric could have a blood transfusion.  He only needed one unit of blood, so we really can't complain too much.

On the positive side, Eric's skin tone is almost back to normal after the discoloration from the chemotherapy.  Eric's weight is up and his overall white blood count was up.  We also both got a lot of reading done today!

We will continue to have weekly appointments for the foreseeable future AND today we made the appointment for Eric's 100 day check up in December.  Our coordinator told us that at the 100 day check up they do tests that let them know how much of Eric's blood is his and how much is Debbie's.  I don't know how it all works, but it sounds pretty intriguing.  After all we have been through, we are expecting some pretty amazing super powers!

Headed in the right direction

Eric had his weekly doctor's appointment this morning.  Things are looking really good.  His neutrophils are up to 3.1, which is amazing.  Other components of Eric's blood work are also improving but his platelets and red blood cells are staying the same.  That leaves him tired and prone to bleeding, but fortunately he still gets out and walks every day and is building up his strength.

So the prognosis for the long term is good.  Short term, we need to be patient because it takes time for bone marrow to build back up to normal.  Having survived five weeks in a hospital room without going crazy, we hope it will be easier to be patient now that we are home and have a little bit more freedom of movement and a more extensive menu.