Day +17 (can you believe it?)

Hey everyone, thanks for hanging in there during this blog drought. Though Charles really wants to blog the good and the bad, the reality of it is, you don't really feel like doing much of anything when you feel crappy. :(

First the good news- after lots of uncomfortable days and I'm sure far too many bowls of broth and cups of applesauce, Charles' throat is finally doing a lot better. He's back to taking his pills in pill form, and starting to be able to eat a tiny bit more. He's been on IV nutrition for the last week or so as well as lipids at night. It's enough to keep his body going, but who doesn't love to eat?? Not being able to eat has been a big dissapointment lately so it's good that he's starting to be able to. He's still battling some nausea issues, however, and unless he gets medication early enough, the food gets cold before he can get to it. :( Timing is a constant battle, but even getting in a few bites here and there of some meals is a good thing, so we're glad for it.

Now for the not so fun--Charles has been having a rough last few days. As you know, his counts had hit bottom about a week ago. They've been building up since then, (almost doubling every day) thanks to his white cell booster drugs. This is good, because Charles' immune system needs to come back, but it's also really hard on your body. Between the new cells, and Charles' counts rising so rapidly, his body is working REALLY really hard to deal with everything. When your counts rise so quickly your bones get achey, so Charles has had some pretty strong full body aches the last few days.

The other main player in Charles' body reacting to the new cells is the tiredness. To say he's been exhausted is a huge, huge understatement. He is wiped out. On top of the usual tiredness, Charles has had a fever for the last 3 days or so. Last night it spiked as high as 104. The fever makes him exhausted and weak.

Because of this, for the last 3 or 4 days Charles has pretty much been sleeping 24/7. Sometimes when there is enough going on or if you carry on a conversation with him, he'll be pretty alert, but most of the time he can barely stay awake long enough to answer a question or eat his food. It's good because his body needs rest, but it's hard for him to miss out on so much. He told me the days are all kind of running together at this point. I don't think he's even had the tv on in the last couple days.

Charles has had a minor rash on his chest that comes and goes and has been happening since he started getting fevers. The doctors did a small biopsy of his skin to help determine what the rash is being caused by and we're waiting to hear back on those results. He's also had some headaches, chills and shakes... all the fun stuff that goes along w/ high fevers.

The doctors have tried a few different antibiotics, but the fevers are persisting. They are thinking it could be infection, so today the infectious disease team came in to see him. They asked us several questions and are hoping to come up with an answer quickly. They are going to start him on a new antibiotic tonight and see if it helps.

Unfortunately, getting fevers and infection can very easily happen to marrow transplant patients. We learned in the caregiver class that we could expect to need to take him to the hospital about 2 times in the course of his recovery because of this. In a way I'm glad this is happening while he's still in the hospital.

Well, Charles' dinner is here and he feels like he might be up to sitting up and eating it! That's always a good thing.

We thank you all for your support, encouragement, and patience with us as this blog might get updated less frequently.

Love,
Karlin