Ugh

Back in the hospital at ten this evening. Platelets dropped to 5. Decision was made to admit, give platelets, abdominal CT with contrast, and then embolize the rest of the spleen. This is the first time I've really been scared. Please hope for skilled hands and measured, clear thinking for his doctors. I am staying with him tonight.

Wednesday morning, 10:45 a.m.  ~  Steve and I both slept *well* with hourly vitals and a constant stream of interruptions.  He was given two units of red cells and two units of platelets in the night.  He is NPO anticipating the pending CT scan.  He had to drink some gawd awful liquid for the CT that smells like sulfur/rotten eggs.  Bless his heart, he got that down.  The scan will be today, the embolization will be today or tomorrow, pending the push on our end to squeeze him in to the manic schedule of IR (Interventional Radiology)......as I am typing I am told the embolization should be today, and Transport has been called for the CT, which is in Prentice...nice.

I was here for rounds, the first time since transplant.  They are going to give him another unit of red blood; hemoglobin is at 7.6 and they want to get him good and juiced for the procedure, along with FOUR more units of platelets.  

Dr. Mehta, the Director of Stem Cell Transplant, was actually here with the team.  I understand he does not round.  Let's just say I had a few questions and did pretty well not being *too* pointed.  He informed us HE wanted 100% embolization last week, and IR did 50%.  "So someone went over your head?" was my response.  On the way out, I put in my request.  "I want your best cowboy in IR.  (They spun around...???)  I want your best guy for this, The A Team.  It's what we get up here, I expect the same in IR." Word just in that the embolization will be early afternoon.  They will transport him to Feinburg with the 4 units of platelets in case there are any issues with bleeding.  His 7 a.m. labs show more decrease in WBCs to 0.7.  It's showtime, folks.

The red blood will go up after IR.  Steve is in good spirits, just wants to get it going!  Nurse Blanca is awesome, she is all over everything.  We are in good hands, please keep us in your thoughts.  Will update as info is available.