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!
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