December 6 - Something to focus on

Room 8217

Here is a photo of our living arrangements during the past week.  Cozy, right?  'Hover' over the photo to make it larger.  Tomorrow will begin week 2 of Dennis’ journey to remission.

Progress has been as expected.  Dennis has been spending much of the day napping, but has completed a mile of laps during each of the past two days; we’re focused on keeping his strength up.  The white blood cell count is almost zero (0.2) and is expected to drop further in the next 24-hours.  The hemoglobin count is holding strong, so no need for a blood transfusion so far. Platelets are very low, so Dennis is still prohibited from handling sharp objects. He will begin to receive a series of Neupogen injections tonight, which will encourage his stem cells to reproduce at hyper-speed.  If you remember, Neupogen is the injection Dennis received while at home in preparation for the stem cell harvest; you know, the really expensive one ($3,000 for each injection).  And, something else we were expecting, hair loss; although not very much as of right now.

One oddity that wasn’t expected is an acne-like rash on Dennis’ face that was caused by the chemotherapy and steroids.  So far, the face is the only area that the poison has chosen to work itself out of the body through . . . perfect.  The doctor is watching his skin very closely so infection can be prevented; the anti-viral and anti-bacterial drugs Dennis has been given are expected to be enough to kill any bacteria before it grabs hold.  Dennis has some benzoyl peroxide handy in the event his face begins to itch; so far, no problem.

Dennis told the doctor that he fully expects his pimples to be gone before Saturday date night.

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