Small But Good

The next step in Eric's recovery is finding evidence that Debbie's stem cells are now growing in Eric's bone marrow cavities.  Since it would be rather painful to open up his bones and take a peek, they monitor his blood every day looking for evidence of neutrophils, which are a component of white blood cells. 

Wednesday was the first day the lab could find any neutrophils in Eric's blood, and it was .1, which I guess is as low as they can be without being the familiar 0 we have had until Wednesday.  The doctor told us not to be disappointed if Thursday's count was back down to 0 because it is not unusual for neutrophils to mess with your mind like that.  Fortunately, they stayed at .1 on Thursday, which led us to believe they might actually go up on Friday to .11, or maybe even .12!  But those silly little neutrophils aren't budging.  Three days in a row they have been .1! 

We have heard rumors that Eric can go home when the neutrophils reach .5, so you can understand the frustration of three days in a row at .1  The doctors have reassured us that they want the neutrophils to come in slowly or they will cause the same bone pain that Eric experienced with the cancer cells when they were growing vigorously in his bone marrow cavities. 

Patience is a virtue, and one that we have been aggressively pursuing, trying to achieve it quickly so we can hurry on to the next virtue.  I should never update the blog after 9:00 p.m.!  Good night folks!