Day 8

First I'll fill in on the rest of yesterday...day 7. The platelet transfusion did not go well. Dad had a reaction and they had to stop that transfusion and give him steroids to counter the welts and itching. They decided that they would not give him the red blood transfusion either...it would have been early evening when he finished, so he just came upstairs instead. We walked a half mile before settling down in the room. Since he was really low in all counts, he just slept solid all afternoon. I had to wake him at 7:30 to see if he wanted anything for dinner (he didn't have anything for lunch but a few bites of banana). Dinner didn't go over too well...he ate a few bites of soup and some peaches...but at least he ate something. He had no problem getting to sleep for the night around 10:00.

Now on to today. Expectedly, his red blood count was way down, so he is currently getting the transfusion. He will have 2 bags and it takes about 2 1/2 hours per bag. Before going down to the treatment center, he said he would try some breakfast and ate some scrambled eggs, OJ, and pineapple...so that was really good! His speech is a bit less slurred (from the lining in his mouth being swollen) so I think that is improving. He looks a bit better today, even though his blood count is down.

This morning, the physician assistant came in first and said she was amazed at how good he was doing. She thought the walking was helping immensely. And she called him her "star" patient. Dad told her if he was her A+ student, he hated to see what the C- student was like. When the doctor came in he was amazed that Dad had the breakfast that he did today...he said that he was doing really great and we should start seeing the counts go up in a few days. The nutritionist also was amazed at how Dad was today. So those were all good things to hear.