Day Ten: By the Numbers

In the past week, we’ve had 5 visitors, I’ve swum 4 times, we’ve received 3 photos of Nate and 2 of Darcy and we’re looking forward to 1 great visit with the kids this coming Sunday.  So despite feelings of Chester, Florence Nightingale and sleep deprivation, we’re managing pretty well.  And while it’s fun to contemplate these numbers, the real numbers we are constantly monitoring are more serious.

Every day the docs check a wide variety of levels in Andrew’s blood.  For nearly a week he has been neutropenic (having next to no white blood cells to ward off infection) and his red blood cells (which give him energy) and his platelets (which help his blood clot) are steadily dropping and getting very low.  This is expected.  But it means Andrew is extremely vulnerable to infection, fatigue and – should he cut himself – loss of blood.  Every day we look at his “counts” and see where he is.  They tell us that Andrew’s counts will start to climb back up anywhere between Day 14 and Day 27 post-transplant.  (Another number we are constantly counting – today is Day 10.) But it is not an exact science!  Chances are, Andrew’s counts will drop further before they rise.  And this necessitates blood transfusions, something we of course would rather avoid.  When we tell the nurses this, they put on their “reality-check face” and tell us to expect one by early next week.

And yet all of this is good.  Andrew doesn’t “have counts” because his cells have been wiped out by chemo and radiation and Ross’s stem cells are still early in the process of producing mature blood cells. Like Andrew, Ross was never the speediest Jones – that was Regg – but we’re hoping Ross’s stem cells crank out a new and improved immune system in Andrew in record time!