Hooray Daddy! Jeff's ANC actually showed up on his morning blood work today! It was 0.1! His nurse , Chris, came in at 6 a.m. doing her best "HAPPY DANCE!" His white blood cell count also came up to .37...a big jump from yesterday's .08! Things are beginning to work--now we wont have to make threatening phone calls to Joel's house in the middle of the night! :) The doctors want his blood counts to rise slowly or he will have an increased risk of graft verses host disease (GVHD). It is a miserable thing to live with as it can cause skin rashes and problems with the liver and stomach. I am finding that a lot a patients who are readmitted to the BMT unit are struggling with GVHD. Since Jeff had a bone marrow transplant instead of a stem cell transplant, his odds of getting GVHD went down to about 50%. GVHD is helpful to patients who have cancer because it also fights cancerous cells, but it will do nothing for Jeff but cause him to feel awful. So...here's to a slow and gradual climb to an ANC count of .5! Congrats Jeff! We are so excited for you!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Day "26"
Hooray Daddy! Jeff's ANC actually showed up on his morning blood work today! It was 0.1! His nurse , Chris, came in at 6 a.m. doing her best "HAPPY DANCE!" His white blood cell count also came up to .37...a big jump from yesterday's .08! Things are beginning to work--now we wont have to make threatening phone calls to Joel's house in the middle of the night! :) The doctors want his blood counts to rise slowly or he will have an increased risk of graft verses host disease (GVHD). It is a miserable thing to live with as it can cause skin rashes and problems with the liver and stomach. I am finding that a lot a patients who are readmitted to the BMT unit are struggling with GVHD. Since Jeff had a bone marrow transplant instead of a stem cell transplant, his odds of getting GVHD went down to about 50%. GVHD is helpful to patients who have cancer because it also fights cancerous cells, but it will do nothing for Jeff but cause him to feel awful. So...here's to a slow and gradual climb to an ANC count of .5! Congrats Jeff! We are so excited for you!
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14 comments:
Yipeee! Here's to being able to spend Christmas outside of the hopsital. This is great news!
Congrats! That is awesome news. We check in on you regularly, and are so glad to hear things are looking up! -Gavin and Lainee Frei
It's good to see that you are improving. Now we can start thinking about building more stairs together!!
Jerry & Janice Law
Awesome Cuz!! It has become our daily ritual to check the blog every evening before we go to bed!!! We are so in awe of your strength & example to us!!! A true DIXIE blue STUD!!! Keep up the FIGHT!!! We hope to see you soon!!!
Jimmy & Kristen Andrus Family
Great News !!! Keep up the good work
We are so excited to. And if slow is better than fast than by all means take the better.
Yeah! I have been checking on you every day and love when it is good news (and not nasty side effects like edema and "low platelet eyes"!). Keep up the slow increase...or whatever is best for you! -Melanie Watkins Taylor
Yeah!!! Jason and I are so happy to hear the good news. Tell Jeff that Jason has been thinking a lot about him and wishes we were closer so we could come and visit with him. We hope the number come up slowly but surely!!!
WAHOOOO!!!!! I'm doing my best happy dance right now too!!! I'm so happy to hear a little joy in your post. I know it's hard, but keep your head up. This will all be a memory soon. Great news!!!
Oh my goodness Jeff. I had no idea what you have been going through. It sounds like this is a time to celebrate during a difficult struggle. You will certainly be in our prayers. I found your blog from a link on Ashlynn Mitchell's blog. What a beautiful family you have!
Keep up the good fight.
Kathryn to the best of wives.
Stay strong and we miss you guys.
So, we take off to NYC for the weekend and come back to the most amazing news! Maybe we should do that again next weekend! Actually we will be in sunny St.G next weekend!
Great news, keep up the good work.
Lots of Christmas Cheer!
The Wingnut's
Here in Colorado... We have a rooting team for Jeff...
We also had our own bald mens' club.. it happened to be our Bishopric.. for a long time(until they were released a short while ago) It was said that to be in the Bishopric one had to have a bald head which the Bishop and his two counselors "naturally" obliged!!
it just so happened that those particular men were called into the Bishopric...So from Colorado.. where we got another few inches of snow.. I just went out to a neighbours' ,had to drive.. there was a car on the wrong side of the road.. oopsy me... I slid into it.. after making sure there wasn't any damage (no-one came out) I continued on my way... I would have knocked on the door if there was damage.. but it still scared me.. it was bumper to bumper... I am Laurie's Silly Aunt Sally... Here's hoping you get to leave the Hospital for Christmas...
Hey Jeff - you are in our thoughts & prayers. We love you & your family & hope you can feel just some of the love out here for you.
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