Transplant Day +11

Trends are good.  White count inched up to 0.2.  It is not engraftment but doctors are happy, happy, happy.  Luke gets a dose of chemo (methotrexate) today which will probably bring his white count back to zero but doctors have indicated he should start seeing improvement in the next 48 hours.  Counts are still very depressed  He received a unit of platelets and two units of blood yesterday and is getting platelets again today.     

Mouth, throat and stomach remain extremely.  It's hard to swallow and has a lot of blood in his mouth.  He's not sleeping well and trying to eat is painful so not much food consumption the past few days.  His pain med PCA pump dosage is pretty well maxed out.  Every two hours he able to get a bolus (medical term for courtesy hit of pain meds) administered by his nurse.  He has started to time the bolus with when he has to take his oral meds.

Temperature has bumped up a couple of times but it was controlled by Tylenol.  He has a rash on his arms, legs and groin but it not causing an itching problem and Doctors are attributing it to pre-engraftment.

Luke is keeping up with this exercise.  he did a record high 6 laps this morning, not sure were he is finding the energy.  

Visitors in the past 48 hours were Ron Graham who is the father of a friend of the girls.  He had a transplant one year ago and is doing great.  Also stopping by was Sam Morrow.  The two play a little bit of the steel pedal and guitar together.
  

Thanking this one step at a time.  Onward to engraftment.           

Hair finally took a hit.  Severed follicles were put to good use.

Be well.