Monday, July 26th

I arrived Saturday evening (a little delayed due to weather) and was greeted by Jaime at the airport. First stop, hospital to see mom. I found her beautiful as ever, but with chills and lots of covers. Her previous fever had broken in the morning, but had returned this evening. There were no signs of infection, just something that "happens" and "is normal", we were told. Not great news for our plans of freedom, fun and frolicking in the very cool apartment that i was told about. So, the doctors told her that she had to be fever free for 24 hours in order to go "home". Prior to getting my tour and instructions for the next few days, I hunkered down and ate mom's hospital dinner...because she eats stuff that is way better for her..and someone has to eat it! Since we were illegally parked, we rushed out and ran over to the apartment so i could get acquainted with the roads and my instructions for discharge. We got a few things together at the apartment and i packed my little bag for the hospital. Night one for me. Mom and i got caught up a bit, but we were so tired we both went to bed. There are lots of visitors through the night, checking and measuring things. Both mom and i woke up pretty tired. Her fever broke in the morning, but came back closer to mid day, which left her feeling tired and "yucky". Even so, we were able to play a couple of rounds of uno...and p.s. even through the yuckiness, she still managed to beat me...and a game of upwards. She has been eating pretty well considering she isn't really interested in food due to the metallic taste in her mouth. As far as her numbers, her white blood cell count was .84, hemoglobin was .89, platelets were 235 and her neutrophils, were 130. The neutrophils, which are the ones needed to fight infection, need to go above 500, so it was great news to hear that they were climbing. Mom was able to take a nap while I snuck out to the apartment for some supplies and a shower. After waking up, she felt a bit better and her fever was still down. We were able to take a walk through the hospital and she showed me the bone marrow transplant wing, where she had spent the first 3 weeks during the transplant. She was able to see some of her nurse friends there and i was able to hear what a wonderful mother i have...not that i didn't already know that...Last night, mom was given magnesium sometime during our supposed sleep. This is the medication that makes her feel "yucky" so we were both up quite a bit. This morning although tired, she seems to be feeling better..she was hungry and her numbers jumped to whites- 2.04, neutrophil - 530, hemoglobin hovered at 8.8, platelets are a slight bit lower at 224, which is great! The fever is still down, so if everything continues ...we may get out of here tomorrow! That's all for now...I will keep you posted.
Alexia