Day 29

It's Friday and time for a weekly update. I saw a nurse practitioner on Monday and nothing significant happened. She looked at some rashes that I am getting and wanted to watch and wait. I saw her again Wednesday and she did my bone marrow biopsy. They are looking for no disease in the marrow and that my marrow is taking on the characteristics of of the donor. She also decided to do a skin biopsy because of my rashes to see if it is graft versus host disease(GVHD). The procedure went well as they gave me conscious sedation so I didn't feel her digging into my bone marrow. I am just sore for a day or two after the biopsy.

Today we saw Dr Bearman and he had the results of the biopsy's. The bone marrow biopsy showed no evidence of lymphoma in the bone marrow. It also looked like it should concerning the donor marrow engrafting and my marrow taking on the characteristics of the donor. The skin biopsy came back positive that I have a mild touch of GVHD. Nanette and I thought he would treat and try to eliminate the GVHD. He does not want to treat it at this time. The beneficial part of GVHD is called graft versus disease. The donor's bone marrow will also attack any left over lymphoma. He does not want to discourage this from happening. So we walk a fine line watching the rashes and living with them. They do itch so they gave us a prescription for pretty strong ointment to help with my comfort.

Counts are still increasing and looking good. Platelets are 186 with 150-400 the normal range. White blood cells are 5.9 with 3.7-10.0 being the normal range. Absolute neutriphil count ANC is 3.6 with 1.5-7.5 the normal range. Red blood cells are 36.7 with 42-53 the normal range. So everything is in the normal range except for red blood cells.

I am still dealing with my bowel issues. I get diarrhea once a day and can control it with the drugs they have provided. Fatigue is getting slightly better and I am trying to walk 30 minutes each day when weather permits. Now Nanette wants to tell you the real story.

Jeff is still losing weight which we are trying to mitigate with high calories, high protein, and frequent meals. It is because he is trying to heal and also has some GVH, and his skin is his biggest organ. His body is trying to fight alot, so his metabolism is running high. He has no interest in eating, yet he is good at forcing himself to eat and drink. The dietician called today and also suggested using soy milk instead of regular because of Jeff's diarrhea. We are going to be doing more smoothies. He can now have some fruits and vegetables following a great washing effort. We are only introducing one new thing every other day or so to make sure that we can watch and see how his bowels adapt to each new food. I told you, I brought a brand new baby home....All mothers will understand this last part that I wrote.

His spirits are still good. There are periods of frustration but they are pretty infrequent. It has now almost been 2 weeks of cooking 3 meals a day and I haven't died yet and neither has he.

Last but not least, there have only been 3 changes in medications in the last two weeks. His tacrolimus--prograf--immunosuppressant, is 4 pills in the am and 5 pills in the pm. Today he started bactrim which is an anti infective agent that is to help protect his lungs from a common pneumonia that can occur in immunosuppressed patients. It is standard to start it around Day 28. He also got to start a multivitamin today. Wahoo!! Something normal.

Naps happen daily when not at the dr. and travel only happens to and from the dr'.s office. Otherwise, Jeff isn't interested in going for car rides etc. He hasn't gone into a store which really doesn't bother him for 6 weeks or more. He has had to sit in the car and wait for me to go into the store for food items or pharmacy items only.

Kind young men and young women from our ward came and spent about 90 minutes raking our yard, cutting and stacking wood, and digging yuccas this last Wednesday. It was such a blessing to have them here. It helps take some of the burden off of me!!! They gathered about 50-60 black yard bags full of pine needles and cones. The laughter and hard work they gave was phenomenal. That's all folks. Have a great weekend