It is Missy again with a quick update for everyone. A week has gone by since the last post, and Doug is still not felling great, but things seem to be moving in the right direction. The symptoms that plagued him last week seemed to get worse over the course of this past week. He had a rough beginning to this week with every side effect of the chemo and radiation rearing their ugly head. He had everything from rashes to swelling of the face and quite a few unmentionables occurring as well. For the most part he has lost what hair he had left, but he does have some super blonde peach fuzz left running down the middle of the top of his head. The good news is he always wanted a mohawk.
In spite of all of the side effects, his white blood cell count has started to slowly recover and hopefully the donors cells are starting to engraft. We have had a lot of people ask us how and when we will know if the transplant is working. At some point shortly after Doug gets discharged, the docs at Dana Farber will run a test called a Chimerism. This will show us how much of Doug's immune system is his and how much of his immune system is his donors. The ideal would be to see all donor.
On the side of discharge, we are guessing that at some point toward the end of next week, he will be set free from his 10X12 white wall room. Today a "care coodinator" stopped by and said she had him down for a Monday discharge. That seems a bit aggressive given his current state (he is still on IV nutrition, his wbc count is still low although increasing, and he still can not swallow whole pills) however, we have been told as quickly as all of these side effects come on, they can go away.
In re-reading this post, I am hoping Doug is up for the next blog. I'm good for the cut and dry update, but he is good for the flair. Kind of like our marriage!!
P.S. Maryland Mimi - can you e-mail Doug offline so he has your e-mail? We left it in VT!
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the update Missy! I always look forward to reading about Doug's progress. I think about him and your family often and pray that you can all get back to normal life soon. I'm sure this is a difficult thing to go through but please know that we're all on your side. Stay strong.
ReplyDeleteChristine
Doug I signed up as a follower today which I thought I had done before.I hope that you get a notification which will show my e-mail.This is the only address I have your e-mail was not in your letter. Happy to hear from you and even though it sounds as if your having a rough time it looks like your moving forward.
ReplyDeleteDoug and Missy - stay strong! We're all praying for a healthy and speedy recovery!Who know maybe you'll feel well enough to join the Trainor / Maguire festivities in early August!
ReplyDelete:-)Brenda
Missy,
ReplyDeleteLike I said, you are doing a fine job keeping us posted on his progress. It will be interesting to see how his hair grows back??!!
He is still in our prayers and on our prayer list at Church.
You strength is amazing.
Cousin Buzzy & mostly from Susan
Hi Missy and Doug,
ReplyDeleteWe've been away and so just read your 5 day-old post, Missy. We're so glad the WBC is beginning to climb! Yay neutrophils!!
Continued love, hugs, and prayers...