Lab results from early Friday morning were "disappointing," according to Dr. Mehta, but not cause for any alarm. His WBCs dropped from 1.7 to 1.1, hemoglobin down to 7.1, and platelets plummeted to 4 from 14. I came downtown via the train and bus today, and will return the same way. He already had a bag of platelets hanging when I arrived around 9. A unit of blood also went up, and now he is having intravenous immunoglobulin or IVIG.
The PCA was disconnected. No pain from the embolization (again, mercifully), and his spirits are pretty good. However, all blood products require Benedryl as a pre-med, and he can barely hold his head up from that and a lack of food. Just getting him to take his pills requires me to roust him out of a fog. He did sleep well last night.
Game plan is to draw a CBC as they have been doing, once daily, and hang products based on that number. They are only giving him one unit of platelets today. Andy Garcia visited him early this morning and told him the blood supply to the spleen is "sluggish at best." There will probably be a follow-up CT scan to determine post-embolization (#2) function on Monday, with a possibility of a third zap to the spleen. I asked about this piecemeal process and was told that while embolization certainly strangles and kills the tissue, cutting off the supply of blood is another issue. It is a highly vascular organ.
We are essentially waiting for Mary's second infusion of stem cells to engraft. Steve is Day +9. The first transplant had "very little effect."
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