Thursday Dec. 16th (Day +7)

Here we are again...yet another day.  First I think I should explain the way the days work - a couple of people have expressed confusion over the +6, 7, etc.  Everything revolves around transplant day, so that's considered Day 0.  Since chemo is prior to transplant it's negative days (i.e. Day -3, -2, -1) and now we're in the post-transplant days!  So the most crucial days post-tranplant are days 5-12 and we're on day 7.  Hopefully by day 12 there should be a big step forward in how Brian's feeling.  Yesterday was not a good day.  Brian started feeling pretty bad around lunchtime and just kept getting worse all day.  By 8pm he had a fever of 101.3 F, extreme nausea, and fatigue.  Due to the high fever, they did blood cultures and started him on IV antibiotics.  I didn't leave the hospital until about 9pm and when I spoke to him this morning he said he had been vomiting all night.  So needless to say, he was pretty discouraged this morning and ready to throw in the towel.  The nurse he's had yesterday and today has been wonderful and she really advocated to switch around his nausea medications, so today has been a much better day!  By 9:30am he said he actually felt human again.  He even started making a few jokes here and there, so I think he's on the mend.  He made a comment to me about how when this is all over he's going to thank me properly by taking me out for a Guinness...I'm not quite sure that's what I would want (I can't stand the stuff!), but if he can drink a Guinness I think we'll be back in business!

As far as his counts go, things are still pretty stable.  His platelet count dropped to 18 today,  so he'll likely need a platelet transfusion tomorrow morning.  They didn't budge for so long (we thought he may not even need a transfusion) and then all of a sudden they just plummeted.  Oh well.  Creatinine hasn't budged, it's still hanging out at 6.1...the good news though is that it hasn't gone up any more, so they're hoping this is the plateau and the downward slope will hopefully start soon.  Please say a little prayer that that happens.  White blood cell count is still 0.1 - we're hoping they start reproducing in the next few days.  Hemoglobin dropped a little bit to 7.2, but the drop is likely due to all the blood they had to take for blood cultures and labs (almost 100mL!).  I'm guessing he'll be in the hospital for another 5 days or so, we just want him home for Christmas.  And then we'll be back to being a clinic patient - can't believe that actually sounds easy!  Funny how perspective changes...

The kids and I are all doing fine.  My mom has been wonderful and took 2 weeks off work to help with the kids...thank goodness or I don't know what we would have done.  Sophie is very excited for Christmas, I have a feeling that this will be our first year that we'll be awakened at 5am with her excitement.  James is just cruising along without a clue that anything is wrong with Daddy.  He senses that Brian is different and doesn't have the energy that he had before, but every time they're sitting on the couch together James tries jumping all over Brian...just like he always does!  My parents are doing well, but I know my mom could use a break...so if anyone has any free time just give us a shout and we'll take you up on your offers!!

Here's a picture of Brian walking around in his new robe this morning!  He still looks pretty good (even though he hasn't shaved in a couple of days)!

I'm too sexy for my robe...!