Monday, 9th February

Day 41 - Stem Cell Transplant

Yesterday (Sunday) Jimmy seemed allot better to me than he did the last few days.  The sister also told him he was doing well but he told me he doesn't feel very well at all and doesn't know why they say that.  I think he is just gatvol.  His lips are very dry and blistered and his skin is very sensitive and a darker shade (another side effect of the chemo).  He is having a hard time with the catheter as it seems to keep by-passing which causes a huge mess and this makes him panic which causes a further mess.  I am trying to put this as delicately as possible.  I feel so desperately sorry for him as this is so humiliating but once again the staff are superb.  He has been taken off the adrenaline as they are happy with his blood pressure, still slightly low, but not dangerously so anymore.  His white blood cell count was at 3.5.  They have tried a couple of times to take him off the oxygen but he is not ready for this yet and he had another platelet and blood transfusion yesterday.  His bloating has come down quite a bit which means the level of fluids in his body is now less, in fact he has lost 3kg but still weighs more than when he was admitted.  I fed him soup for dinner last night and he almost managed to finish a bowl.  And now I am trying to remember what his temp was like yesterday but the old memory is failing me.

I knew he was in better spirits this morning because I received a message from him reminding me to bring him some more shorts and he'll see me at 10:30.  I am not allowed to visit him before 11:00 so there is a glimmer of his sense of humour.  When I got there this morning his temperature was 35.9 but it did rise to 37 something and then stabilised at 36.4 during the day.  They are still a bit worried about the oxygen levels in his blood so apart from being on oxygen all the time, they nebulised him today too, which helped a little.  We had another accident with the catheter this morning so they removed it and are quite happy that he is able to feel when his bladder is full.  It is also not so important that they measure to the ml the amount of fluid he is passing.  Some disappointing news is that his white blood cell count dropped from 3.5 to 0.9 but Dr Fine said this is not uncommon and will be due to the infection and high temperatures so they'll carry on with the Neupogen injections until they reach 5 and then it's up to his body to produce stem cells on its own. 

He is still being fed with a tube and Dr Fine explained to him today that this only accounts for 50% of his food intake so he needs to make an effort to eat.  He had Weetbix for breakfast and I fed him another bowl of soup for lunch and some more soup for supper.  Tomorrow he is going to try some fish and vegetables.  I'm so glad I don't have to eat that food.

Jimmy was disappointed about his white blood cell count as he was hoping to come off the Neupogen injections by tomorrow and of course this means a delay again (Jimmy is running to a clock and wants to be out of there on the 18th) but he really still is not well and I tried to explain to him that it does not help trying to rush things.  He hasn't mentioned his mouth or throat being sore today and it also looks like the different doses of different nausea medication is at last working.  He only complained about not feeling well while he was having a blood transfusion today.  Later this evening he'll have a platelet transfusion.  He was very sleepy today again but I am sure this is because of his blood counts.

Tomorrow we hope he will be allowed up to have a nice shower and maybe he will be in the mood to watch a movie.  I wonder if he is allowed popcorn?  hehe