One Night Stand

The nurse is now telling us that they have a bed reserved for Tyler on the 7th floor again because he is no longer requiring ICU level of care. Hip Hip Hooray! So, while I hate to pack up the bags again, it is a relief to know that Tyler has improved since this time yesterday.

They are not going to dialysize (sp?) him at this point either, as his kindey function has continued to improve throughout the day.

He's eaten a little bit of food today and I definitely feel that he is looking more alert today.

Nothing if not Confused

This morning our nurses came in to introduce themselves and we learned that Tyler would have an ICU nurse, her ICU nurse trainer, and a dialysis nurse. The dialysis nurse told us that they had Tyler scheduled for 8 hours of dialysis today (up from the 4 hours we were told yesterday). I asked what his phosphorus number was today. Apparently Tyler was at 9 yesterday and the normal range is more like 3-4 or so. But today he was at 8.3 with his 6am lab draw.

Despite that, they had planned to continue with the dialysis this morning, although at a reduced rate because of his low blood pressure (which accounted for the longer time involved). But his pressure is improved and the doctors thought that they might be able to bump up the rate a little bit if he stayed where he was.

However, just a few minutes ago, our nurse popped her head in to say that they were delaying the dialysis until after Ty's noon lab results are in. It sounds like the doctors hadn't seen the 6am result when they talked to us. Since he dropped from 9 to 8.3 between midnight and 6am, they want to see what his kidneys can do on their own in the next few hours.

Tyler is doing his part to clear out all of that cell waste, so hopefully it is enough! I'm glad we are waiting for now. I don't want him to have to do more blood filtering out of that giant tube in his neck!

A Higher Level of Service

The staff at UWMC finally made the decision to move Tyler into the ICU unit. While he is fairly stable right now, his blood pressure is very low and he is running a fever. In order to provide more observation and a higher level of care, they have moved us into an ICU room.

They also want to run the dialysis process for him at least once tomorrow to help his body clear out the excess phosphorus that has built up from the cells dying off. His kidneys have not failed, but they are certainly impaired right now. We are hopeful that his numbers will have improved in tomorrow morning's labs and we can prove to them that his body can do the cleaning on its own. They assured us that this isn't a permanent diagnosis at this point, just a way to help his kidneys through a rough patch. I guess it is a bit like hiring a temp kidney to take on the extra workload.

His latest white blood cell count was 4, so he's definitely dropped way down in that area. We expect to see further drops with the next couple of lab tests. So far no sign of nausea from the chemo, but it is only a matter of time. Last time if was a salad that did him in and he couldn't eat it for months. I think I'll steer him away from salads for now....