Tuesday Updates

I stayed in town last night I was worried about getting snowed in. We were supposed to get 20 cm. of snow so I stayed at Angela's place. It is so nice having her just 5 min. from the hospital. I can practically roll out of bed and be there. I am glad that we did not get the storm. Angela had to get my mom to the eye specialist today and a truck load of snow would have made that difficult. That went good. I had my appointment with the nose specialist. He spent about three minutes with me to tell me that the Cat Scan was normal (good) but that I have viral damage to the nerves in my olfactory center. If my sense of smell does not improve by March it is doubtful that it will come back. He said that there is nothing that they can do but to come back in March to let him know how it went. Ha! Why? There is nothing that they can do. Why waste the tax payers money on me coming back so he can tell me again that there is nothing they can do? I don't understand the logic of this.

We got better explanations today from the doctors about what is going on with John. For the tender spot on his jaw, they thought that maybe there was an abscess but the ultrasound came back good. They say it is an infection though and they will keep there eye on it. His pimple is getting worse and they will keep there eye on it as well. His white counts are beginning to inch up so in a few days he should have a least a partially functioning immune system.

They had to give him platelets today. Those counts were down to 15. They should be over 100 somewhere! He had to have Benadryl with that so he doesn't react bad. He slept all afternoon. Zonked out.

As for the lack of stem cells, Dr M. thinks that it is due to being so neutropenic and having infections is so hard on him. His body is trying so hard to get a grip on all this everything is going toward that. They are going to try with the stemgen for a few more days and then if there is not a marked improvement they will go with the other drug. The most urgent prayer request is that they can harvest his own stem cell and that God would heal his infections.

Becky brought him a fiber optic Christmas tree she got from Wal-Mart. He loved that. She figured since he is not allowed to have live plants or flowers that should cheer up the place. It did. I love it as well. She also gave the nurses some chocolates. They loved that. I would like to give them some baking to thank them, so I am going to try to whip up a batch of butter tarts before John goes home. They have been so good to us.

I felt very discouraged yesterday. I am sort of up and down. Today I feel more positive. I am finding it difficult staying on an even keel and not being fearful so you can pray for that. When I get like this I tend to lose my focus. I lost my car in the parking lot today. This was not a large parking lot. I almost left to report my car as stolen! Yeesh! I must have been quite a sight wandering around that parking lot. I just got my directions totally mixed up. I was totally frozen by the time I found it. Baby it is cold outside!

Happy Hanukkah