Day 2

This is Deanne writing for dad.

It was another tough night with lots of diarrhea and now mouth sores...I noticed mouth sores about bed time and the nurse checked them out, gave me some miracle "warsh" (wash) to help out with them. The doctor could not see them this morning so I think the wash helped out. I got platelets, potassium, and magnesium during the night.

We were supposed to have a big snow storm last night and it didn't materialize, just got a spitting of snow. Nanette is staying home and taking the day off. Deanne is here right now helping out and Monica will be here later in the afternoon after the big switch off of the kiddos! Saw the doctor and nurse practitioner this morning and asked them for Immodium to stop the diarrhea. They finally consented to that, and the diarrhea is seeming to slow down (which is a good thing). The doctor said that this will pass, he thinks the reason for the diarrhea and mouth sores is because of the high dose of chemo.

Ok, now it's Deanne. I went and tried to start the laundry but someone has a crap load of clothes to do so I haven't been able to get to it yet. He has been lying in bed most of the time I've been here, besides getting up to go to the bathroom and eat a small bit of food. His eating consists of a small portion of food at a time, i.e. he ate a 1/2 of an english muffin and a pop...slow eating so he does not overwhelm his stomach. Mom called to "check in" a little bit ago. I rode his exercise bike for 7 minutes or so, but this gown and gloves gets you so hot that I had to stop...I didn't want to be sweating when I took a shower this morning... :-) The retry time for laundry is 11:30 and I will be refilling ice, pop, and getting myself something to eat too. The food room is pretty cool here because there is a variety of food and drinks that we're allowed to eat...funny story, the first time Monica and I were here and mom and dad told us to go get food and drinks. We were scared to go in there b/c we thought we'd get in trouble, and we got caught by a nurse!! So the next day I told them no way no how I will not go in there b/c we're gonna get in trouble...there was a nurse in the room and she said that they were the only ones that get in trouble if they eat the food! Phew! That would have stunk getting kicked out of the hospital!!

Blood counts: platelets 8, white blood cells 270, red blood cells 27.1

It was surprising that the white blood counts went up. I asked the doctor about it and he said not to take it as a positive sign yet, there's a good chance that it will still hit zero before the stem cells start working.