Still Hanging in There Day +1

I don't whether to be relieved or scared. Stevan is still doing well even though his numbers are still going down. He has not been sick, no diarrhea, and no nausea. This was really an uneventful day for us. He slept, or tried to sleep most of the day. I had a hard time getting him to get up take his daily shower and walk until after 6 tonight. When he did walk he did more than I expected. Yesterday he walked the "track" three times. I told him he should do at least one more than that. He made 10 rounds.

On Monday a stool sample was taken for testing. He tested positive for Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci, VRE for short. This is germs found in the bowel that is resistant to the antibiotic Vancomycin, that is used to treat the infection caused by Enterococci.  They don't know how he got it, but people who are at risk for getting VRE are those who have been in an intensive care unit, are sick with a long-term illness, have been on many different types of antibiotics, have had major surgery or had an organ or bone marrow transplant. This means that he is in isolation to prevent VRE from spreading to other patients. Nurses coming into his room now have to wear gowns and gloves. Visitors are to report to the nurses station for directions on what to do to enter his room now. I was told to wash my hands up to my elbow constantly. I'm to use the alcohol-based hand sanitizer coming and going from his room. The main question we had was "Is he contagious?" Answer, "NO". Its more to protect Stevan than anyone else. VRE is not spread by coughing or sneezing. It can be on your hands, and can get their from your stool or urine. It spreads by touching anything if you do not clean your hands. Hands must be washed for ten seconds or cleaned using an alcohol-based hand cleaner. It really isnt as bad as it sounds.

Stevan making phonecalls tonight.

On to the numbers! When we asked the doctors about Stevan's M-spike results from January's bone marrow biopsy, we discovered he obtained zero. Yeah! So that is why they were pushing for him to do the transplant.  Looking at his blood test results from last Thursday during pre-op and then last nights numbers here are the results.
                      5/17     5/24
White Cells     8.6       3.2
Red Cells       4.05     3.31
Platelets         404      244
Hemoglobin   12.6     10.4

In other medical things to report for the day... Stevan was given Neulasta today, to get his white cell back up to working, even though his numbers are not low yet. This will cause some aches and pains similar to his neupogen shots he had before his harvest. Talking to his evening nurse tonight, she said that it would be about day 7 when his numbers get down to their lowest numbers. She also said that he would be allowed to go home when his ANC, absolute neutrophil counts, is greater than 500 for 3 days. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fights against infection and must be calculated by a formula.  I'll  be asking for this count now.

After posting pictures of Stevan the last couple of days, I've had several people ask why he was so swollen. Last night we discovered he had gained 18 lbs in 24 hours, due to all of the fluids he was getting. Even the nurses were surprised at how much he was holding. I asked the doctors this morning about his bloating. They decided to give him a one time shot of lasix to help flush him out. LOL... he got up every 30 to 45 minutes for 5 hours to relieve himself. He just got weighed tonight and he has lost 10 lbs since last night. The lasix are doing their job.

All is going well which proves the prayers are working. Thank you!