8 AM Monday, May 16, 2011

Wish I could report that Ed was able to come home over the weekend, but such was not the case.  This session of ARA-C with the bigger dose has definately kicked his butt.  He's been having a lot of bone and joint pain over the weekend and still spiking fevers, but less frequently than last week.  His counts are still low - .7 for whites and the platelets are up and down so he'll probably get some more platelets today.  They also gave him a shot of Epogen for red blood cell stabilization and we're just waiting it out right now, trying to keep him comfortable and trying to figure out what's caused the left arm weakness in motor skills.  Right arm is still swollen and the blood clod hasn't dissolved, but because they can't put him on blood-thinners, they expect that it may take some time to correct itself.  His appetite is waning, partly because of the fevers and somewhat from the general crumminess of the chemo, but I went out and got him a pepperoni pizza and he ate 2 small pieces last night and had bites of food here and there over the weekend.  The dietician brought us some alternate menus with some slightly more appealing food selections to substitute for their regular menu, but mostly I just try and bring in something from his favorite restaurants, even if he only eats a bite or two.  He's getting tired of me pestering him to eat, but I just don't want him to have to go back on the TPN if we can avoid it since it's such a breeding ground for bacteria with all the sugar, etc.

Dr. Menco and Dr. Mazur will be back today and I'm looking forward to talking to them instead of the on-call people covering the weekend.  I'll let you know when something newsworthy comes up, which may be a day or two.  It's likely we're just in a wait and see mode until the after-effects of this recent aggressive chemo have subsided.  Cards would be awesome, but visitors are still restricted until his white count is above 2.0.  Thanks.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!