Things Are Looking Up

Steve has been home a week, we can't believe it.  Labs show steady improvement, most notably his platelets, which hit 30 today.  I sent him into the kitchen to sharpen knives the moment I got that news.  So kidding.  Essentially, without getting transfusions of either red cells or platelets, his numbers are rising.  Dr. Altman said those cells ARE being made, so it appears that Mary's stem cells have taken up housekeeping somewhere....AND the spleen is shutting down.  Halleluja! 

He has been eating juuuuust a bit of food here and there, still no real sign of an appetite.  Steve has also lost 15 or so pounds of water weight from all the IV fluids in the last week.  His magnesium got very low, so we have been giving IV magnesium at home with a pump plus oral meds and that did the trick.  There is so much involvement on our part back and forth with the hospital on the phone that you would not believe it.  His drug chart looks like something John Madden would draw, Xs and Os.  His sleep is sometimes good, sometimes not so good.  In many ways it's like having a baby in the house.  You need to make sure they don't nap too long or they get their days and nights mixed up.  I am hoping to get him to walk a bit outside in the next week, or use our stationary bike to build some muscle tone back.  And it appears that a bit of new hair is sprouting on his head, he never went totally bald, just fuzzy like a penguin chick.  We have clinic tomorrow and hope for a good assessment.