6 days post tranplant

The past two days have been pretty rough for Don. His counts continue to drop. (White count was 0.06 this morning with a platelet count of 61). Unfortunately, he has continued to have orthostatic changes in his blood pressure, resulting in a lot of dizziness when he tried to move. I am beginning to think that his hair may grow back blonde!

Seriously, though, his standing BP was 85/50 after two liters of saline yesterday. After the third bag, he started to perk up a little and we were able to come home. He has been sleeping most of the time and the nausea has prevented him from taking more than a liter or two of fluids by mouth. He got another two liters of saline this morning in the transplant unit and the started a Reglan drip on the vacuum infuser. He ate a good dinner this evening and walked the dogs. He actually stayed awake for a couple of hours! Our APN told us to expect his counts to drop for a 2-3 more days before the stem cells take hold. He won't be getting any growth factor with this phase of the treatment.

The weather has been quite pleasant and sunny with a high of 65 today. The Bradford Pear trees are getting ready to bloom. We are blessed with only "normal" side effects of the stem cell transplant and, of course, the time we have together.