Day +10 July 27 2014

So I didn't dare say anything to soon and jinx it, but it would appear that Tom is some sort of record shatterer.  Looking back over last year's blogs around transplant, the doc told him then that it's typical to not see a WBC increase from 0.0 until Day +14 and Tom did it by Day +11 having spent only a total of four days at 0.0.  This year (hold onto your hats) Tom has only spent ONE day at 0.0 and had registered at 0.1 on day +8!!!!

On day +8 we thought (myself, the nurses, tom, and the doc) that it was possibly a misread the day previous and maybe he hadn't actually hit 0.0 yet.   Well He's now had three straight days of 0.1 and then his hgb and platelets stabilizing/increasing as well which points to (drum roll please) recovery.

Dr. Kiwan (who is covering for Dr. Carroll for the week who is on vacation), said he has only ever had one patient before who spent only one day at 0.0 and was at day +9  (where Tom's increase started at +8) and he said the other guy was a different situation.  So per usual, Tom the over achiever is doing ok.  He does however have the typical and expected mouth sores that have moved to the throat now so he's having a hard time eating and is in agony.

We are so astonished that I thought I'd look back at last years blogs around transplant and found that I was in search of frankincense to help with white count recovery last year.  Oddly enough, subconsciously I suppose, I've been rubbing frankincense on Tom's feet daily giving him foot massages.  So I think I might just take a little credit here. ;)

I should probably knock on wood here, but we've also seemingly skipped fevers (though his counts would suggest there's still ample opportunity), so far he had just two days of fevers where it spiked one night and seemed to go away once the antibiotics started.  They already identified it a type of staph found on your skin or in your mouth so it's as usual just something that got unruly when given the opportunity.

Well I think that's it. :) Doctor says the next waiting game and area of concern is seeing what these new cells do ... basically whether they decide to create havoc and put him through graft vs host or not.  Keep those prayers coming for him, something's working!