Gertie has Competition!

Day 7 has proven to be a worthy opponent!  While still a very good and close friend, Gertie has become #3 next to Ralph, his pink bucket (as noted in picture), and Privy (It's a noun - Google it).  

He didn't have such a good day today.  He started out pretty chipper - had an early breakfast, shower and a walk with Mom, but went down hill fast.  Perhaps today has been the worst day.  No fever, good blood pressure at 112/72 but blood counts continue to be down - WBC  at 0.1 still, HCT at 28.1 (up a little after two units of blood last night, but transfuse level is 24) and platelets are now at 9.  Remember, normal platelet level is 140,000 to 440,000.  Dad's are at 9.  They had just started him on a platelet transfusion at 9 pm tonight.  That should help to boost the platelets pretty quickly.  The big danger with the platelets is that is his ability to clot his blood.  At these low levels, he could easily hemorrhage or have internal bleeding if he's not careful.  

His nausea is much worse, to the point they switched him from Zofran to Compazine.  I'm not really sure if that helped much or not, but it sure did knock him out!  I arrived tonight about 7:30 and stayed until about 9:30 and bless his heart, he tried so hard to stay awake, but just couldn't. He was awake long enough to tell me that the Compazine knocked him out.  

His neuropathy pain in his feet has really started to bother him.  He has on those hospital socks with the little grippers on the bottom of them so he doesn't slip on the floor and he feels like those are digging into his feet and it's very painful.  He requested some larger slippers which were delivered tonight so maybe some regular socks and rubber soled slippers will do the trick.    

On an interesting note, he's actually gained a few pounds (5 since Monday).  I'll be investigating that more tomorrow.  A quick inquiry last night and again tonight to the RN staff did confirm that he's not swollen or retaining water and the IV fluids are getting flushed out of his system at an acceptable rate.  More to come on that...  

Thanks for your continued prayers!  The RN staff tell us we expect more of "today" thru likely Monday and early next week he'll make the corner and start improving.