Day +1

First of all, thank you to all of you for being part of this blog and for following Dad's/Leo's progress. Your support is a great source of strength for him. He especially enjoys your comments...so keep them coming!

He had a good night last night. As always, the nurse came in to draw blood at 5:30 or 6:00 and then we went down to the treatment center at 9:00 to get the results. His blood is doing what is expected....all counts are going down. They look at many different parts of the blood, but the main things are white blood cell counts (these are the fighter cells...the ones that fight bacteria, and infections and diseases), red blood cells (they carry oxygen and they contain hemoglobin...these things are necessary for survival and give you energy and strength), platelets (these help the blood clot, so a person doesn't bleed to death when cut). They also check absolute neutrophil count (ANC)...I need to figure out what that is...that's for a later date of discussion.

So each day Dad goes for his daily doctor visit and sees the transplant doctor, the physician's assistant, the treatment center nurse (if he needs any catheter caps changed, or lines flushed, or dressings changed), the cooperative care nurse, the nutritionist. This morning the nutritionist asked Dad what percentage his appetitie was...10%?? 25% ?? and Dad said 100%. She just sort of stared and then said that was great, that's all she needed to know. When the transplant doctor came in he asked Dad how he was feeling and if he was having any problems. Dad said he felt great, was eating good, taking walks. And the doctor just stared for a minute and then said, "Well then I'm going to go visit some SICK patients", and smiled, got up, and left the room!

The verdict today is that Dad is doing fine and at this point doesn't need any transfusions. He actually did some work this afternoon...participating in a conference call. (Luckily, it wasn't yesterday when he was a bit loopy from the drugs).

Here's some information on what to expect with Dad's blood: the white blood cells will be the first to bottom out. The red blood cells will follow and then the platelets. To give you an idea of where Dad is at with the blood counts....his white blood cell count is 1.6 (normal is 4-11). There's no transfusion of white blood cells...they just have to recover, although in 1 week Dad will start receiving more of those neupogen shots which encourage white blood cell production. Dad's red blood cell count is 2.77 (normal is 4.3 - 5.9). His hemoglobin today is 8.8. If they reach 8, he will require a transfusion. His platelets are at 47. If they reach 10, he will need a platelet transfusion. So they will be keeping a careful watch on all of the above, but for now, he's feeling good. We went for a 3/4 mile walk this morning and will aim for the same this evening, but that will be dictated by Dad and how he is feeling at that moment.