It's Happened!

It's finally happened.  Joe said he woke up this morning and had hair in his eyes, his ears, down his back and called on trusty Earl, one of the medical techs, to come in and shave the holdout hairs off his head! 

He had a REALLY good day!  Counts are improving with his WBC at 3.6, his HCT at 25 and Platelets at 29!  The RN staff explained that as his WBC starts to recover it will improve his HCT and Platelets.  His platelets had a large jump from the transfusion he had last night.  So the more specific platelets worked well!  They also shared that we should anticipate these numbers will fluctuate up/down a little.  I do anticipate his platelets tomorrow won't be as high.  Hopefully the WBC and HCT continue to go up!  

AND, they are talking about letting him go home on Friday!! YES, Friday, September 19 to start his home recovery process.  He attended a class today to get a better understanding of the recovery process at home.  After his morning labs on Friday, they will determine if he gets to go home.  At the rate he's going, I think he'll be home by sundown Friday night.  Once home, the orders are lots of rest and as much walking as possible.  He'll have to return to the hospital one day next week to have his blood counts checked and then the port will be taken out.    

When I arrived tonight about 6:30pm, he was ready to go for a walk.  He said his head was cold and of course, I brought him a hat to wear!!  So he put on his slippers, his hat, his back brace, and was out the door.  17 laps around the floor is one mile. Two steps out the door I mentioned it was shift change so he may want to wait until the new RN team came in.  Back in the room for 10 minutes and then our 1 lap around the floor commenced.  He walked at a pretty good pace too.  

Many of his side effects are starting to diminish - no nausea and diarrhea meds today!  He did have some morphine this evening for his feet and shoulder.  The RN said the shoulder pain is likely bone pain from the drug they are giving him to stimulate the stem cells.  

I have to say it is amazing to see how sick he was on Sunday and Monday and by Tuesday, the 180 degree turnaround! 

Keep praying.  He has a long road ahead of him still.  Technically only 12 days into a 100 day recover process.  But God is Good, all the time!