Small Uphill climb

It has been a busy weekend. Dad, Lois and Brian arrived late Friday night. Got up Saturday morning and the guys started installing a dishwasher and garbage disposal for Chris and Andrea. We made them stop at noon so we could go see Eric and enjoy some time downtown.

Eric was a little under the weather on Saturday. His throat was hurting alot. The way the nurse and intern discribe this is... the cytoxen breaks down and kills all your cells from your throat all the way through the other end! So what that means is there is no protection there and the throat gets sore and irrated from just swallowing. They like to get a handle on it right away with medication before it gets unbearable so they put him on morphine..small dosages but still morphine..so he was kind of a zombie yesterday. His numbers fell more over the weekend. He received a bag of platlets on Saturday. AND his hair (or what he has for hair) is falling out. Right now it is primarily his facial hair but I think soon he won't need to think about shaving his head.

I think you will all be amazed at how well Eric is walking, talking and more on top of things. We really feel blessed and in awe of all the amazing stories we hear from the nurses of the other patients who have gone through this procedure. It still seems like a dream to us.

Yesterday afternoon, me, Brian, Dad & Lois went downtown. Took Brian to millieum park.. saw the bean, walked around the park and enjoyed sites and sounds around us. We got a little shopping done and then went to Harry Carey's for dinner. Brian and Adam were both Cubs fans and I thought he would get a hoot out of going there. Adam.. next time it is your turn.. Would of loved to go to game, but a little to early for the season.

We made it back to the hospital in time to visit with Eric a little more before he was ready to call it a day. That morphine kicked his butt yesterday. Today is much, much better. He is off morphine, the numbers are beginning to creep up...
WBC = Yesterday was 0.03, today 0.04
Platelets = yesterday was 8, today (after the tranfusion) back up to 21

We are still hoping to be home by the end of the week. They say the WBC will just start to excelerate at a very fast pace, BUT we are not going to be disappointed if we need to wait a few days longer.. We are just grateful to be here and want to maintain and keep Eric as healthy as possible. No need to rush things!

Dad and Brian finished their handyman work this morning. They wrapped up around noon today and we headed back to the hosptial. It was fun to see Eric in a good mood and interacting with the family. We ordered a Chicago style pizza, played some yahtzee and had a little party in the family visiting room.. Everyone left around 5 p.m. and I came back to hang with Eric for the evening.

Tomorrow we are all back to work. My project got moved and will go live this Wednesday night.. I think we are as prepared as we can be but I predict a crazy week ahead!! Starting to feel a little home sick.
Talk to you all soon!!
Love Eric & Cindy