Giving Good Blood

I gave blood at my office's blood drive today. My blood just about stopped several times today, but eventually I made it to the bare minimum for a donation. I felt kind of bad for my blood tech though, as she was really working to get those last few drops. She did joke that I must have an abundance of platelets, as I started clotting immediately after she removed the needle. I was the 2nd person to start donating this morning and the 7th one to finish. I envy those of you with nice big veins!

I encourage you to find a blood drive in your area and donate your own pint of blood. While it isn't my favorite experience (this isn't usual from all of the people I've talked to), it is something concrete that I can do to help Tyler and others like him.

Speaking of my handsome husband... Tyler was feeling great after Monday's lab draw. His counts looked fantastic and he felt good. In fact, he felt SO good that he talked his dad into golfing in the rain. Or, as Scott shared with me, Tyler kept trying to convince him that the rain was letting up.

WBC: 7.23 (normal 4.3-10.0)
HCT: 31% (normal 38-50)
PLT: 97 (normal 150-400)
ANC: 5.13 (normal 1.80-7.00)
Potassium: 4.5 (normal 3.7-5.2)

He's been on IV Magnesium or Magnesium supplements in pill form for several weeks now, but that number was in the low range of normal as well.

He's able to eat more at each meal than he was just a month ago, so he's building strength again. The first time that Scott, Gump, and Tyler went golfing (post transplant), Tyler had to rest often along the way and was wiped out for the rest of the day. This time, he didn't have to sit down and rest during the outing and still felt good that night.

On Sunday, he had his first driving experience in about 6 months as he drove us to dinner that night. Although it felt strange to him on the way to the restaurant, I think he settled back to normal by the time we headed home.

Day 37 - Only Monkeys Eat Bananas

Tyler has tested high in Potassium a couple of times this week, so the doctors want us to carefully monitor (and attempt to lower) his potassium intake. The normal range is 3.7 to 5.5. Potassium is one of the electrolytes that is important for heart and nervous system health. A potassium level greater than 7.0 can cause cardiac arrest, so it is a very serious thing that Tyler had a 5.5 in his test on Thursday.

A high potassium level can indicate impaired kidney or adrenal function. To avoid any such complications, we are cutting Tyler's intake of milk, beef, pork, beans, bananas, and anything else with high potassium.

As for his other test results, they looked great.

WBC: 4.03 (normal 4.3-10.0)
HCT: 30 (normal 38-50)
PLT: 91 (normal 150-400)
ANC: 2.22 (normal 1.8-7.0)

We'll keep you updated on changes to the potassium situation. For now, we just have an extra blood test on Friday, followed by the first of 4 lumbar punctures Tyler will need to get over the next two months.

Day 27 - Seeing a Golfing Theme

Tyler's father, Scott, chauffered Tyler around today to blood draw and some more golf.

First, the test results from today:

WBC: 2.38
HCT: 29
ANC: 1.6
PLT: 64

They tested the level of tacrolimus in his blood and determined that it was a little bit higher than desired, so they have lowered his dosage for the next few days. He'll have another level taken with the Thursday morning blood draw.

According to Tyler, he and Scott and Gump (Tyler's brother) had to squeeze a little bit of golfing in today as they were all in the same neighborhood at once. They headed to the Pitch and Putt at 128th and played through that course. It sounds like Tyler enjoyed himself, although I imagine he will be pretty sore tomorrow after all of that exercise. I haven't heard how each member of the trio did, but I imagine they were all enjoying the outing. They've had some great times golfing all over the state.

Day 16 - Punchin' the Time Clock

Sometimes Tyler and I talk about how fighting cancer is a full time job. Tyler works every day to eat and exercise and sleep enough for his body to heal. It's definitely a lot for him to worry about, especially if our schedule is disrupted.

Today was one of those days that felt a bit like work. We had our first appointment at SCCA at 9:15 this morning and didn't leave until just after 5pm. There is cause for celebration after today's visit, however.

After our lab appointment we had clinic with our team nurse and team doctor. They schedule these once a week to keep tabs on Tyler and make sure things are still going well. Our nurse, Jackie, checked Tyler's vitals when we first got there. When our doctor, Peter, got there he asked if Jackie had told us the good news. Jackie hadn't said anything about good news, so they got my curiosity up.

Still we had to ask what was up. It turns out that Tyler is doing SO well that they are stopping the IV antibiotic and switching the Tacrolimus to pill form. We were going into the clinic for daily infusions for those two items, which meant at least a few hours there every day. With this schedule change, we think most of our days will be lab draws, once a week clinics, and physical therapy appointments.

In addition, they will be stopping the Filgrastim shots either today or tomorrow. They've warned us that the blood counts will probably drop a little bit once they stop giving Tyler that booster shot, but we can live with that (especially since the shots are painful to get).

So... Are you ready to hear Tyler's blood counts from today?

WBC: 2.11 thousand (normal 4-10)
ANC: 1.79 thousand (normal > 1.0)
HCT: 26 % (normal 37-52%) --> We got red blood transfusions today
PLT: 17 (normal 150-400)

His hematocrit (HCT) was 26% yesterday, so I was pleased to see that had held steady. And his Platelets (PLT) got a good bump from the platelet transfusion yesterday.

Day 1

Day 1: We are now counting upwards towards the 100 day mark when we get to transition to the long term recovery plan.

Tyler had a restful night and woke up to scrambled eggs for breakfast. We are heading down to SCCA for lab tests this morning. They will be monitoring Tyler closely for the next 30 days to make sure his hematocrit (the kind of red blood cells that carry oxygen) and his platelets (the blood cells that are responsible for clotting) are high enough to keep him going day to day.

We've entered a waiting period. About 2 to 3 weeks after transplant, we will see the first signs of engraftment. Most likely, this will be Tyler's white blood cell count showing it's first bump.

As he has virtually no immune system right now, we have to continue to be careful about infection. Tyler must avoid live plants, cut flowers, animals, and sick people. With that in mind we're going to try to hide out at home for the next couple of weeks. I've decided that our sole contact with the world outside should be through Netflix! ;)

Go stem cells, go!!