October 21-22, 2011 - Day 20 & 21

4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days since diagnosis
day #30 of current hospital stay

My family was together this weekend for the first time in nearly a month. When Valentine saw how much better Riker is doing, she exclaimed, "I DID IT! YEAH!" :) Yea, baby. Your bone marrow is a beautiful, perfect miracle.

Like clockwork, Riker's counts came up on day 20. Her ANC went right past 500 and shot up to 780. On day 21, it went up to 1,630. Only one more day above 500 and she'll be considered engrafted. The transplant is successful and the the riskiest point is behind us.

Next steps are weaning off the pain meds and getting her to eat. We're in no rush. The morphine had been reduced significantly in the ICU and it caused Riker to have withdrawals. We've gone back up to the original dosage and we'll be weaning her much slower. There is no need to cause her any discomfort. Plus, there is pain involved when counts come in. As the marrow grafts and settles into its new home, these side effects will pass and we can really focus on getting her off the pain and anti nausea medicines.

As for eating, Riker's not showing any interest yet. I've started making her 10cc bottles which is a third of an ounce. Since she's not at all interested, I don't want to waste milk trying to get her to take a bottle. At this point, there is still no concern about her not being interested. It should come. If it doesn't, there's always a cup or a sippy to try. We'll get her eating again.

I continue to be frustrated with things at the hospital, however. I know that overall they are a fantastic hospital and bottom line is they save lives. The could do better, though. Today, I found a pill in our room. Valentine had played all day on the table in Riker's room and when she left I found a pill. Lately, she's taken to putting everything in her mouth. I couldn't believe it. I had the nurse call pharamacy and it turned out to be Reglan. It's relatively harmless but what if it had been a narcotic? Or chemo? They really need to be cleaning better between patients.

Then, I went into the family resource room to print something on one of the computers. There was a little boy in there with his mother. He had one of the worst coughs I have ever heard. And his mom was wiping snot from his nose and then thumbing through the movies. I asked her if he was sick and she said he only has a cough. When I complained to the nurses, they said that he was ok. However, coughing and wiping snot, touching things and spreading germs is not ok on an oncology floor. What is causing the cough and snot may not be contagious but that doesn't mean that there are not germs in all those secretions. ugh.

So, for now, we wait again. Not much should change for the next few days. This won't be our home for much longer. Hopefully, we'll be discharged in 2 weeks or so. Hopefully, Jon's finding us all a place to call home very soon.