No Pain, No Gain??

Not a lot to report tonight, lab wise.  His WBCs did pop back up 1.8, which is great!  Hemoglobin was a nice 7.5, dang platelets at 4.  He was given two units of blood and one bag of platelets.  Maybe they figure, why pour platelets down the drain, such a waste?  Last night he had some pain from the embolization, much to the glee of Dr. Mehta during rounds.  That means the efforts of the procedures are paying off.  His pain was managed well in the night.  Hasn't had any pain since that episode.  They will do another CT on Monday to assess the percentage of embolization from procedure #2.

Today he had a few sips of a McD's smoothie at lunchtime.  He sat upright in the recliner chair for most of the day.  Tonight I managed to get him to eat some fried rice from our favorite Chinese restaurant and almost a full cup of vanilla ice cream.  He is really battling a mind/body connection with food.  He is afraid of getting sick if he eats, and getting more ill if he doesn't.  I know that once his white cell count starts to climb,  his outlook, energy, and overall demeanor will improve.

Some very sad news at the end of this week.  Please say some prayers or keep in your thoughts two other families in need of emotional support.  Megan's boyfriend, Matt B., lost his father this week.  Mr. B. had been estranged from family and friends for many years, yet this news was a big shock to all.  We are sorry for Matt's loss and hope everyone rallies around the family.

Also, the family and friends of Tim P. will be welcoming him home to Las Vegas.  Tim was Steve's neighbor these past two admissions at Northwestern Memorial, and his brother Gary and I struck up a hallway friendship this past week.  Gary got to meet Steve's brother Pete when he was in last weekend.  Their story was unbelievable, and Tim was not in good shape.  Gary told me Tim was being given two more days of medical intervention to the best of their abilities here, and then, unless he rallied....there would be nothing more they could do, and Tim would be sent home to die.

Tonight when I arrived with Kevin, Tim's room was empty.