Wednesday, August 16, 2017

My platelets were up to 68 today but my white count came down to 5.91 and my hemoglobin was down to 8.5. I don't know any additional information about being released tomorrow. I will be released unless something unforeseen shows up. I may have to get another unit of blood in the morning if my hemoglobin drops below 8.5. I will also have to get the CVL line removed. I will do all of that before my doctor's appointment at noon.
In the past week or so I've lost 24 pounds. That was from fluid I gained while being on the steroids. I have very little appetite now but I don't think that is contributing to the weight loss.
The only virus that showed up where the current status is not known is the CMV. The nurse retested that today. The Provo virus is not active now. Something continues to make me feel yucky. I hope that feeling goes away soon especially before we start the drive home. I do plan to break the drive up into 2 days. We normally do it in one day.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Today was a big day for news. First let me say that my white count was 6.82 which was lower than it was two days ago and it was lower yesterday than the day before. My hemoglobin is 8.8 but my platelet level was 59. I don't know why my white count has dropped. The doctor had predicted that my platelets would max out at 50 or 60. It looks like that it's going to be much higher than that unless it stops going.
The news I got just a few minutes ago was that I will be discharged on Thursday this week. We will probably head home on Friday spending the night somewhere in route. I don't think, at this point, I could make that drive in one day. We will have to return for testing in about three weeks after we leave here. It will be good to be back to good old home again.

Monday, August 14, 2017

My white count today was 7.90 and my platelet count was 47.
They are still trying to determine about the level of the viruses that did show up in blood tests. They did a couple of specimen draws today to get more information.
I don't know why but as the day progressed I got to feeling pretty bad as I do now. I really look forward to the time when I'm feeling good most of the time.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Wow! We were surprised at my lab results today. They were even better than what we had forecast in our optimistic minds. My white count was 8.33, my hemoglobin was 9.4, my platelet level jumped up to 40 (it was 27 yesterday). We are very thankful to see this much progress this fast.
Tomorrow I have a breathing treatment at 9 a.m. The treatment is to help prevent pneumonia. Then at 1 p.m., I have the lab tests and review just like today.
Thank you all for all your support in so many ways. It is helping us so much to get through this.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

We were only at UAMS about two hours today. After I got my blood drawn and tested, they determined that I didn't need anything extra. That was really good news for us and we enjoyed our time off.
My white count today jumped up to 6.83. The platelet count had gone to 27 and the hemoglobin was 9.2 which was lower than it was yesterday by .3.
I don't normally feel as good as usual and I have some other issues but I am slowly on the mend.
Let me say something about what I posted last night about the Parvovirus. It is common in children and they told me that I might have had it since childhood but never been active because my immunity has never been that low. It is not related to the parvo that dogs have. In children it is often called Fifth disease.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Today ended up being a big day for us. My white count rose to 5.05. My platelets were 20 and my hemoglobin, which is been running low, ran 9.5. It looks as if God is allowing the new stem cells to rebuild the bone marrow successfully.
In the blood cultures they ran, they determined that I have an active Parvo virus. They said I could have had it for a long time but since my immunity has been so low, it became active. I got another treatment of the IVIG to help with it. That infusion took about 4 hours and I might have to get additional ones during the next week.
The APN was so pleased with how things were going, she took me off the schedule of getting two antibiotics infusions each day and changed my schedule to only having to be there once a day. We have been going at 9 a.m. and the other appointment was at 5 p.m. so now we have one appointment which is scheduled for 1 p.m. We were really pleased about that.
It seems that recovery is progressing much faster than I expected. Based on what I interpreted that doctor Van Rhee said, this is much faster than what he would have predicted also. Thank you all so much for your prayers for the best outcome for me.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

I meant to post yesterday that they did several cultures to try to find why I am still running a fever. When I take Tylenol, the fever does not show up, but as soon as I stop taking it, the fever reappears.
We spent less time today at UAMS than we have in quite a while. We were there between 4 and 5 hours and it was really good to have that extra time away from there.
My white count today was 3.33 and my platelet count was 13. The platelet count was 14 yesterday so that means the bone marrow is producing even though it's got a long way to go to be at full production. When I got the melphalan chemo, it killed out my bone marrow. The stem cells are used to go in and rebuild my bone marrow. The doctors expected that my stem cells are not in real good shape and would be very slow in rebuilding the bone marrow. I have been very pleased so far at how quickly it appears the bone marrow is being rebuilt. I am very thankful that is the case.