Updates; Steve & Karen visit Stefan (photo)

I didn't have a picture of Steve & Karen, but Daniella had one on her camera. This is a picture that belongs on the blog, so I had to go hunt down Daniella and take her camera so I could get this up on the blog!

Just kidding... I didn't have to hunt her down... But I did pick her up this morning and brought her to her house. She needed a few things, and I'm waiting for her to get out of the shower now. If it was just a matter of needing something from the house, Steve or I could have just gotten it for her, but Daniella can't shower at the hospital, so I figure she deserves a shower every couple of days... ya think? After all, there's only so many times she can take a sponge bath in the restroom every night! Coupled with the fact that it's good for her to actually leave the hospital every now and then... I figured it was my duty to bring her home so she could freshen up.

Stefan is holding his own today... not better and not worse since Sunday. Still tired, and slightly irritable, but alert, awake, eating, and fighting. He's still on fluid restriction, since he keeps flushing his sodium levels down with a "normal" fluid intake. Daniella was told she could get him some Gatorade, so we'll be stopping at the grocery store to pick some up on our way back to NMH. He has less than three days of chemo left - he'll be finished on Thursday night. After that, he has a one week 'rest period' where he doesn't receive any chemo, just saline IV, pain meds if needed, antibiotics. After two weeks from starting chemo, they do blood cultures to see what his counts are and what percentage of leukemia cells are still in his body.
If it's less that 5%, he's in remission, and they can start the immuno-booster program (more medical specific info on that later), which will help his body build up his red cell, white cell, and platelet counts - since the chemo does not discriminate between bad and good blood cells, it's just nuking them all and not allowing his body to produce anymore right now. He gets 1-2 units of blood daily during chemo, for that reason. So, we've got nothing to do but wait. Wait till his chemo is finished, wait for two weeks to pass, wait for test results, wait to start the next round of drugs. And in the mean time, until his blood counts get back to a "safe" range, his immune system is practically non-existant. And because he's susceptible to any germ, virus or infection that may even just glance his way, we'll keep you updated on how soon he can have visitors, so that a common cold germ doesn't become a life-threatening infection for Stefan.

"Thanks for your calls, emails and posts," say Stefan and Daniella. And Thank you from me too. It never ceases to amaze me how wide-spread my parents' circle of friends is. God bless. -SMK