Mom has settled into a nice routine. She wakes up at 6, takes some nausea medicine, and goes back to bed. At 7, she wakes up, takes more medicine, and gets ready for clinic. Her breakfast usually consists of a fruit smoothie and an ensure. When she gets to clinic (usually at 8 or 8:30), they take her blood and she waits for the nurse practitioner and doctor to see her. After clinic, she returns home, takes a nap for around 2 hours, and then has lunch. We then go for a walk of about 2-3 miles. After the walk, we watch a movie or play games, eat dinner, and she gets to bed somewhere between 9 and 10. This is her schedule, and hasn't deviated much in the past week.
Nothing has been eventful with her health. There are three main markers in her daily blood tests that they check - platelets, hemacrit, and white blood cell count. Her white blood cell count is 0.2, which is very low, but not unexpected. Her platelet and hemacrit numbers have dropped, but not to the point that they do a platelet or blood transfusion, respectively. Her platelet counts are actually in the normal range now, which may be good, may be bad, who knows. The doctors don't seem to care. They also regularly check her levels of cyclosporine. They want to maintain the cyclosporine (immunosuppressant) levels between 300-400 to prevent out-of-control GVHD. Her levels had stayed at 350 for the past few days, but yesterday they unexpectedly jumped to 692, an undesirably high level. So, they had her skip 2 doses to get that under control.
That's about all on the stem cell front. Mom's spirits are still high, even though she could do without the constant headache of varying degrees and her generally anemic appetite. Emotionally, the transplant has been tough, because we are essentially waiting for the other shoe to drop. GVHD could be serious, or it could be mild. She could get an infection, or she could not. Right now, we are happy that nothing of significance has happened and hopefully we will have many uneventful days to come.
Christmas in clinic. Can you find the bling? |
Callie & Wanda on the way to the clinic |