Saturday, 21st Fenbruary

Day 50 & 51 - Stem Cell Transplant

Apologies for not blogging last night but Jimmy did not have a very good day and I felt so down when I got home.  Funny how it doesn't matter how old we get but there are still times that we need our mothers.  I phoned mine and had a good cry, I think more from exhaustion than anything else.  I did feel much better afterwards :)

Jimmy's energy levels seem to be completely wiped out.  I got to the hospital at 11:00am on Friday and he woke up a little while later and said hello and then dropped off back to sleep.  At about 3:00pm he woke up again and asked me to pass him his juice, had a sip and went back to sleep.  He had nothing to eat, basically one sip of a drink and slept the rest of the time.  He didn't even wake up when they nebulised him.  He is also back on oxygen again.  Dr Fine came to see him and was just starting her examination when she had to go to the nurses station for an emergency call and never came back so I couldn't actually chat to her about Jimmy either.  His white blood cell count also only came up by 0.1 from 5.2 to 5.3.  I think this virus that he has, has knocked him quite badly.

I didn't go through to the hospital this morning as Loren and Emma are here for the weekend and I had a couple of things to do and some errands to run like trying to find a battery for our garage door motor which has now died. 

The girls both had things on this afternoon so I went through and got to the hospital at 4pm.  Not very good timing as I had to wait till 5pm before I could go in as they were working on the Hickman pipes and the environment has to be very sterile.  Jimmy was sleeping and not long after this they brought him some soup so I woke him up to feed him.  He managed about 10 spoons of soup, probably half the bowl, without vomiting.  He had some juice and then went back to sleep.  Just before 7 I woke him up again to tell him that I am going to go home.  I felt very bad but I had a splitting headache and really am feeling tired all the time.  Of course the first thing he asked me is what time will I be there tomorrow morning so I promised that I would be there at 11:00 and spend the day.  He apologised for sleeping so much but said he just feels so tired and sick all the time.

I did ask the sister what his white blood cell count was today and she said she would come back to me with the exact number but it was 4. something but I didn't see her before I left.  Very disappointing as this means it has dropped again is spite of still being on the Neupogen injections.  I suppose this is the 'trend' that they are not looking for before they stop the injections.  I did see this evening that his is off oxygen again but he is still being nebulised.

So actually not that much news to tell.  He was doing so well on Wednesday and Thursday and all progress since then seems to have slowed down quite radically.  But I suppose the body knows what it is doing and maybe he just isn't ready for the big jump yet.

Again, a big thank you for all the support, specially on the dark days.  Loren and Emma have also been feeling a bit down in the dumps, its been a very long road and I think we all thought that he would be much better by now, possibly even discharged.  Thanks girls for the lovely messages that you send Uncle Jimmy, he really does appreciate them.  Thank you to Colleen and Billy for the yummy meal you dropped off this week....10 months on and you still looking after us.....and the same goes to Rohan and Patsy too, the girls and I are looking forward to some of your delicious home made Chicken Curry tomorrow night.