Month: September 2014

Yesterday, Clark’s red blood cell (RBC) count was 8.0. We were expecting to give him a RBC transfusion today, but surprisingly his RBC count was 8.3 today! Even though this may look like engraftment, it most likely isn’t since RBC are one of the last blood cells to take hold. What most likely happened, is the small sample of blood that was taken yesterday just happened to have slightly less RBC’s than today’s. Nothing more. Don’t be discouraged though. In my mind, the less transfusions he has, the better.

Clark is still looking and feeling great! Today was slightly less boring than normal, since he had a small episode of emesis this afternoon. Oddly, immediately after we changed his sheets and cleaned up, Clark immediately asked to eat!

Clark was also visited by the physical therapist, book fairy and the music man today! He even learned a few cords on the guitar!

Happy Labour Day!

Patrick, Clark and I spent the day together.  While Patrick and I were talking today, we did a quick calculation.  Including our first 2 surgeries to fix Clark’s mysterious bacterial infection and put in the 2 lumen broviac, as well as the BMT, we have been in hospitals for almost 35 consecutive days!!  Wow, it has been a long time.  Lots of ground covered, but still lots to go!

We are now in the “zone” for engraftment.  There are no expectations for how soon we might see the new bone marrow take root, but somewhere around 14 days, give or take, we expect to see Clark’s neutrophils and ANC rise.  Today was the start of the “earliest” we could expect to see signs.

Once we see growth we move into the next phase, called “Isolation”.  Isolation starts at the hospital, but continues at home for months after we leave.  More on this in the coming weeks – but think of it like “house arrest” with the family. Ha, ha…

We have to give Clark a special clorahexadine bath every day, to ensure we kill any fungus or bacteria that might be growing on his skin.  Clark has decided he likes to wash his truck while I wash him.   That truck is so shiny and clean!