Transplant 2 Day 28

This is Karen, posting for my parents tonight.

We were all thankful to hear Dad's blood counts this morning.  His whites continued on their slow but steady upward swing to 0.6.  Hemoglobin was down to 73 and platelets were down to 11, which is not yet low enough for transfusions.  Dad is continuing to struggle with fever and pain, which will burn up blood (reds, platelets) quickly.  He expects to receive transfusions for both tomorrow.

The doctors ordered a CT scan to check for blood clots in Dad's chest, which could possibly explain his pain.  The scan showed that there are no clots or a very clear reason for the pain.  However, the doctors did find a few small nodules on the lungs which may be fungal pneumonia.  Adrienne right away ordered a new, stronger anti-fungal medication to be given by IV and after a few days, Dad will then continue with anti-fungal pills for a while.  Patients who have low white blood counts for a long time often struggle with fungal issues, so this is not uncommon and it will take a while to treat.  Dad's oncologist is happy to have discovered a cause for the fevers, but continues to look for another explanation for the chest pain.

Adrienne also ordered more pain medication to be given regularly.  Dad hasn't received any pain relief (besides Tylenol) since Sunday, but he is still very uncomfortable.  The doctors hope that by managing pain better, Dad will be able to rest and sleep better.  Dad also has had a tough day battling nausea, so the nurses started him on stronger anti-nausea medication by IV.

All in all, Dad would describe today as a good day, even though he is really not feeling well.  It is good to have some more questions answered and plans in place to combat Dad's symptoms.  His number one wish at the moment is to have a good night's sleep... We hope that the increased pain and anti-nausea medication will allow him to settle and rest, and that the anti-fungal medication will deal swiftly with the nodules on the lungs.

We give thanks to God for the continuing signs of engraftment and for His tender mercies for each hour.

Psalm 150
Praise the LORD!  
Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens!  
Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness!  
Praise Him with trumpet sounds; Praise Him with lute and harp!  
Praise Him with tambourine and dance; Praise Him with strings and pipe!  
Praise Him with sounding cymbals; praise Him with loud clashing cymbals!  
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!  
Praise the LORD!