Well, it's been over a week now since admit and Tom finished up his chemo on Tuesday. He did three rounds a day for five days which is why they hospitalize. His counts dropped rather fast which helped in the sense that it eased the spleen pain because the spleen was so swollen with the leukemia, but the quick drop also robbed him of the chance to go home following chemo until infection time. I suppose at least while in here he can get better meds for pain management.
Poor Tom's battling some serious mouth pain with both the GVHD and the mouth sores caused by the chemo and low counts. He is in agony most of the time, but is holding off using some of the dexamethasone steroid because the doctor explained how necessary it is for him to have the GVHD, but as a last resort wrote for him to be able to have the dexamethasone. It's incredibly important for the GVHD to flare up a bit so that it fights any leukemia and keeps him in remission.
He's been at 0.0 white blood cells which is expected, they started with the neupogen shots to increase white blood cells. Currently we await the expected fevers/infection that typically hit around day ten due to the lack of white blood cells and today is day eight. After his white cells rebound he will be allowed to go home.
In the meantime, thank you to all those who've stopped by to visit him (Alex, Janetta, Lily, Chris, Jenny, Janet, Louie, Kelly, and Andrew who's out from Michigan), and those who've taken the time to email, call or text, and for everyone checking in. His 28th birthday is coming up this Thursday and (because I know he won't read this) we are hoping to get as many birthday cards from as many people possible to surprise him for his birthday. I think this would really cheer him up and give him what he needs to get back on track here. Please message me if you need the address. :) Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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