Today has flown by, surprisingly. Ed had a brief surgical procedure today to put in a PICC line - the central line he needs for the TPN nutrition. Everything went well and he's a little groggy this afternoon. He had 2 units of platelets just before the surgery to make sure he wouldn't have a bleeding problem during the procedure and he's continued to get the antibiotics, PPN, potassium and fluids today. He's in the middle of getting another blood transfusion as his red count was still below the threshhold level but his white count came up a little today from .5 yesterday to 1.2 today. We'll take any progress, and we know that little steps lead to bigger ones.....
Dr. Menco came in and said they will probably leave this PICC line for 2 or 3 days and then put in a fresh one before Ed can go home, just to make sure there's no residual bacteria in the line left over from the staph infection. He will also order another abdominal CAT scan probably for Monday so we can get an idea of how well the ARA-C worked on the lyphoma. His next chemo schedule would normally have been April 8 (3 weeks from his last ARA-C at UCLA), but Dr. Menco said we'll just wait and see because they can't blast him again if his white count is still low. It would wonderful to have a few days of being at home and feeling good before he has to sign up for the carnival roller coaster of chemo again. I'd really like to have a chance to get him outside during these beautiful warm days -- I was really hoping to get him out today in the 80-plug degree sunshine, even if just for a few minutes, but it wasn't in the cards today. We're due for another spurt of warm weather early next week, so we'll shoot for that. We haven't seen the view from our patio in quite a while, and as many of you know, it's pretty spectacular, so that's absolutely something to look forward to enjoying.
I made an edit to the blog from Tuesday - I had listed Don Colucci instead of Don Tucker as the photo album "author" from Colorado - my apologies to Mr. Tucker. (I'm going to have a word with my editor....!) Don Colucci called and thanked me for his short-lived "celeb" status on the blog.......thanks for setting me straight .....and thanks, Don Tucker for the great album. Ed has looked at it several times and has enjoyed thinking about all the memories the photos represent. It really helps keep his mind off of all the poking and prodding and always brings a smile.....
Ed says hi to everyone, and thanks you all so much for the prayers and cards - another stack came in the mail - lots of wedding cards too. It means a lot.
Well, it's 5:05 PM and apparently the sound of my fingers "pounding" on the keyboard are disrupting full enjoyment of the "Factor" so I guess I'll mosey downstairs and make that almost daily tough decision I confront as I pass the gift shop .....do I feel like a nut? or not. Almond Joy or Mounds.....
News at eleven......
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