Sunday, October 28, 2012

10/28

In between storm preparation, Audrey Mathison and I are here visiting John; depending on the severity of the storm, it may be a day or more before I can get here again.  More good news!  John's wbc count was 0.09 on Friday, 0.4 on Saturday and 1.8 today!  The counts are improved by a white blood cell colonizing med John is receiving.  At some point, that medication will be discontinued and we will see how John does on his own.  The counts will diminish for sure when the med is stopped but John will be closer to discharge when he is growing them on his own.  Discharge is now a visible light at the end of the tunnel; it may be a long tunnel...or not. 

Hard to believe John has already been here 3 weeks.  Within the next week or so, John will have a bone marrow biopsy.  Among other things, the results will show whose (Michael/Zacchary) immune system is engrafting and in what proportions.

John's most pressing current complications are really dry skin, significant fluid retention ,hiccups that are constant and mucositis still causing trouble eating and drinking.  He is looking pretty magnificent having now really lost all of his hair and beard; Mr. Clean, eat your heart out.  In spite of all, we can tell how improved he is by attitude and the agenda he is developing.  Attitude-wise, he is well enough to be really sparring with his nurses.  Agenda-wise, he has prepared a long list of action items for me to do to prepare for the oncoming storm - learn to run the generator (thank you, Kevin!), move the plants off the deck, check the storm pipe, etc.  Two days ago there would not have been enough energy to make all these plans.

Stay safe everyone; we look forward to reporting more progress in a few days.

2 comments:

  1. All eyes on discharge. Hurricane Sandy Schmandy. Go John!

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    1. Heh Ace. F Sandy. F Fungus. I'm as tough as a hurricane or fungi, even those that went to The Citadel! As long as I have you and a few colleagues in my corner, you can bet on me - hell or high water. Not bad for a wimpy English teacher. Not bad. Love you Ms. B my little mentee.
      As always,
      Ritter

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