- WBC is 3850 (4500-11000)
- Neutrophil count is 3720 (1500-7800)
- Hematocrit is 34.4 (36-46)
- Platelets count is 18 (150-350)
- Transfusion scorecard: platelets (45); blood (25).
Believe it or not, there are over 150 readers of this blog, and though I speak to a few of you once in a while, I thought I would give everyone a sense of where I think we are today.
We are 2/3 through this planned journey of 100 days in Baltimore, though not necessarily where we thought we would be at this point. Generally, you are in the hospital for 30-40 days as an inpatient, and then another 60 days as a daily outpatient. The daily outpatient visits are meant to be able to provide whatever transfusions may be required such as blood, platelets, magnesium and potassium, as well as whatever else may be required.
As you know, this is our 68th day as an inpatient here, which has been due to a variety of complications from the transplant, notably breathing issues, Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD), and Guillan-Barre Syndrome (GBS). Let me say right off we have been told by the doctors, on more than one occasion, all of these issues are reversible.
One complication we had not planned on is the fact Denise has effectively been bedridden since March 8, and I believe this will cause our stay in Baltimore to be extended even more than the planned 100 days. This is because she is going to have to have some serious rehab to get all the muscles in shape required for mobility.
When, where, how long? I don't know at this point. Several factors come into play here.
When? She has to be able to be safely discharged from the hospital first, and I know we will be here for at least another week, and maybe longer. This won't happen until the doctors are sure the GVHD and GBS are responding to her medication.
Where? This is the unknown. In order for Denise to be able to have rehab in this hospital or at Johns Hopkins Bayview, she would be required to be able to complete at least 3 hours of rehab daily. We are not even close to that yet, as the current rehab has been suspended for a while until her breathing gets under control. It would be great if the next week or so could be used to build up some tolerance to the workouts, but I am skeptical at this point.
If she is able to be safely discharged from here and unable to perform the daily 3 hour workouts, then I think they may put her in a nursing home temporarily, where she could still get rehab, medical care, transfusions, etc. Obviously not our first choice, but we don't necessarily have much choice.
How long? Smart ass answer is until she can walk, but there is more to it than that. We are hoping all the time we are spending on the front end here in the hospital will reduce the time needed to spend as an outpatient on the back end, but that is dependant upon where her blood counts are when she graduates from rehab. This rehab could take a couple of months, but knowing her determination, I would bet she would beat that
The single most important thing to remember is the reason we came here was for a bone marrow transplant, and that has been a success. Yes, we have hit a few bumps in the road, none "unexpected" but all wish we had avoided, but she does have healthy marrow producing healthy blood. To give you an example, in January her WBC was 42,000 and her neutrophil was 36,000, both of which were sky high quantities, and we also know most of them were "bad" cells too.
Now, to your favorite part:
Factoid: There have been 21 perfect games in baseball history, including the one yesterday by Phil Humber, but did you know the first 2 were 5 days apart in 1880?
