Day 5: First Transfusion

Dad Stats:
Most recent temperature: 98.1F
Most recent blood pressure: 105/56
Today's white blood cell count: 0.10

Since Dad started the morphine PCA pump last night, he has been somewhat loopy. That has been exemplified several times today. When we went on our morning walk we saw a fellow patient, and Dad gave him a thumbs-up sign. Around the next corner we passed Katie, our PCT, who was drawing "Superman" on a sign for another transplant patient. When Dad saw it he chuckled and then asked me if I knew who that was. I replied "I'm not THAT young Dad, everyone still knows who Superman is!" Then Dad ran into the nutritionist, who asked him if he has been eating well, and he said "yes"very emphatically...even though it's been three days since he's eaten anything. I resisted the urge to tell on him.

Although Dad still slept most of the day, he actually seemed a bit more awake today. That may be a paradoxical effect of the morphine. During his naps, he would sort of mumble unintelligible phrases. I think at one point he was saying "potAEto, potAAto...potAEto" but I'm not 100% sure.

I talked with Melissa a little more about Dad's mucositis today. She told me that it probably will continue to get worse until his white blood cell count starts to rise, which will be around Day 10 or so. That means Dad probably won't feel like eating for about another week. If he goes any longer than that without eating they will start him on IV nutrition, aka TPN (total parenteral nutrition). Also, as Dad is a mouth-breather, his mouth has gotten really dry (and dry mouth makes the mucositis pain worse), so they gave him a mask that emits humidified air. That will help keep his mouth a little more hydrated.

Today his platelet count bottomed-out, and so he got his first unit of platelets around 10:30am. I want to reassure you all that it's normal for patients to have to get both platelet and red blood cell transfusions at this point in the recovery process. His hemoglobin is hovering around the borderline (7.0), so I expect that he will have to get some red blood cells tomorrow.

On a more aesthetic note, Dad has started to lose his hair again. He had grown a nice crop of short hairs, but today I noticed dark fuzz all over his shirt, and the back of his head is starting to look patchy. Hopefully this will be the last time Dad has to re-grow his hair!