Well, today has been another difficult day, but overall I still feel more positive than I did several days ago. Brian just generally feels crappy and tired. He's still having fevers of 102-103 degrees F. He's now on two different IV antibiotics - cefepime and vancomycin (for all you healthcare providers out there!), Tylenol every four hours, and right now he has 3 ice packs around him (it sounds horrible to me, but he says it feels good). His blood cultures have not grown anything and his chest x-ray was clear, so they don't actually suspect an infection at this point in time, the antibiotics are mostly prophylactic. The doctors have said that when patients start engrafting (meaning when the bone marrow starts reproducing white blood cells) they can have high fevers and a full body rash, which he also has. Although it's difficult to watch him go through all of this, I feel encouraged by the fact that the doctors are not too concerned about these symptoms. And his white blood cell count went up to 0.2 today, so that's cause for celebration! I think I'll have a glass of wine for him tonight.
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| "Chilling out" |
As for everything else, his creatinine is still about the same. It was 6.09 today, but other labs are trending in the right direction - BUN (another kidney-related lab value) went down quite a bit and all of his electrolytes are fine. The renal doctor this morning said that he didn't expect his creatinine to start coming down until he no longer had fevers...we'll see. His platelet count was very low this morning - only 5, so he got a platelet transfusion. He hasn't had any signs of bleeding (nose bleeds, etc), so that's good. I did notice lots of petichiae (small, little purple spots that are actually tiny hemorrhages) on his legs, so we'll be careful about those. Hemoglobin is back at 7.0 so I'm guessing he'll have another blood transfusion tomorrow morning.
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| Heather starting his platelet transfusion |
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| Half-full bag of platelets |
I finally figured out how to upload a video (thanks Betsy!!), so here is Brian getting one of the four syringes of his stem cells!
Brian's Transplant video
Dear Brian and Kirsty,
ReplyDeleteHow amazing to watch the transplant take place through a syringe, no knife involved.
Just so you know, the P-M's from the other side of the 'Pond' continue to pray for total healing, whether through medicine, miracle or a combination of both.
Home for Christmas!
Well done keeping us all up to date on what is going on.
lots of love
Patrick, Philly, Matthew and James x
Brian,
ReplyDeleteWe're praying for you double-hard now. First and foremost for your recovery! But I have big, big fears about your post-recovery now... I can't even imagine the mayhem that will ensue once that open-shirt video of you goes viral. Wait 'til the Bieber fans get a load of real, honest-to-goodness chest hair!
~brice
Lmao Brice - it's a massive concern, I agree!
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