Sal didn’t have a good night last night, he was up through out the night with a 103 temp. I came home last night to stay with the kids, so I am not sure how much sleep he was able to get with the temperature. This morning the doctor ordered xrays of his chest and several blood tests to see what could be causing the temperature.
On a positive note, Sal’s platelet count has doubled from yesterday.
Here are his results from today’s bloodwork
White Blood Count 0.7
Hemoglobin 9.5
Platelets 86
Sal had a pretty rough night. He was running a low fever, around 101, luckily Tylenol kept it down. The doctor did another bone marrow test and it will take about a week or so to get the results. As soon as we receive them I will let everyone know.
His platelets went up, but his Hemoglobin went down and the white blood count is still about the same. I don’t have the exact numbers with me, but I will get them as soon as possible.
Thank you for your support and encouragements 
Here are his numbers for May 30th
White Blood Count 0.4
Hemoglobin 8.8
Platelets 40
A lot of you have asked about donating money to help Sal and Kristi. I have just added the ability to do this via Paypal! There is now a donation link above, and also to the right (on the main page) if you would like to help.
Sal slept a lot this morning. He is doing pretty good, still able to go for a walk. He even left Wall-E behind while he went for a walk today. He isn’t able to go too far, but even a little walk is good for him.
The doctor came in this morning. He said that he will be doing another bone marrow test tomorrow afternoon to see if the first round of chemo destroyed all of the leukemia. The doctor is concerned that Sal’s white blood count hasn’t come up. Usually by this time people have already started building their count up. Sal has not built any up and his platelets are still low. The platelets did go up due to his transfusion yesterday morning, but this is about the only time it goes up is right after the transfusion.
Sal is in good spirits and appreciates everything that everyone has done. We are not sure how we could do it without our friends and family. We have a long journey ahead of us, but we know with the help of our family and friends we can do this!
The kids are strong and they just want Dad to come home, but they also know that he needs to get well before he can come home.
His blood work results for today are
White Blood count 0.4
Platelets 31
Hemoglobin 9.3
Sal was in pretty good spirits. His platelets were low so he had to have another platelets transfusion. He didn’t have a lot of visitors so he was able to play with his new Ipad and read on his Kindle.
Sal has a rash along his neck that has increased but they say that is because of the low platelets.
He was hungry again today. We brought him some street tacos with just the meat on them and he loved it. We are still a little worried about bringing food in, but if he is really hungry I bring him in something. He even wanted Starbucks the other day.
His blood counts are about the same
White blood count 0.5
Hemoglobin 8.9
Platelets 10
Alot of people have asked what they can do to help us….our friend Scott Mull has designed a Tshirt to sell as a fundraiser for us. I don’t have all of the details, but you can see the logo on my facebook page. As soon as I have more information I will let everyone know. I know the tshirts are $10 and I believe he is also going to offer tank tops but I am not sure how much.
I am hoping with the sell of the Tshirts people will be more aware of Leukemia. When Sal complained about bleeding gums and a stomach ache, we googled it and the first thing that came up was Leukemia. I know Sal would have ignored his symptoms if we didn’t google it and see that the symptoms were signs of Leukemia. The doctor even said that Sal was very lucky to catch it so early, most patients come in with uncontrollable bleeding. Acute Leukemia can be deadly and we are hoping that with Sal’s story our friends and family will be more aware of their health. Sal keeps telling everyone that comes to visit to make sure they listen to their body.
The funds raised will be used for assisting us with any financial needs during the time Sal and I are off work during this journey. The doctor said that Sal will be off for a minimum of 6-8 months if not longer.
If you have any questions please let us know, you can email me at kristijophotography@yahoo.com or Sal at echo6alpha@yahoo.com
Thank you for your support
Another good day, Sal is doing pretty good. He does have a little rash on his neck, but they said that is normal from the low platelets. He asked for a cheeseburger for dinner, so I went to Burger King and got him a cheeseburger with pretty much nothing on it since he can’t have any fresh produce. I was really glad that he was hungry for something.
The kids came with me this evening to see him. They were so excited to see him, of course Cheyene had to say all of her cute little remarks, Jacob came to see Sal’s iPad, I mean Sal and Kiera sat with Sal on the bed watching Mythbusters. Everytime Sal watches Mythbusters, he says that the two guys on it remind him of our friend’s sons Drew and Cole.
Sal’s blood results were about the same even with the platelets transfusion yesterday.
White blood count 0.6
Hemoglobin 8.6
Platelets 12
and his weight was 189 pounds….he was so excited he gained a pound.
Sal’s spirits have been up today. He received 1 unit of platelets. His regular doctor was off for the weekend, but the on call doctor came by and said Sal was doing good. He said that the chromosome test show that Sal is in the “average” category. Not sure what this entails, but the doctor seemed to be happy with how Sal is doing.
Sal is still pretty weak but he did go for a walk with the kids. The kids were so excited to see him, or should I say his new Ipad that some of his coworkers from Hemet court gave him….Thank you! He has really enjoyed the IPad, he has been able to facetime the kids and his dad in Colorado. If anyone would like to facetime Sal you can find him by searching for his email echo6alpha@yahoo.com.
His test results are about the same
White Blood Count 0.8
Hemoglobin 8.8
Platelets 10 (this is why he had to get a transfusion)
Just saw the doctor and everything is about the same. We are just waiting for Sal’s white blood count to come up. Unfortunately, he will have to have another bone marrow test sometime next week to see if the leukemia has gone away. When a person has leukemia, they can either have an extremely high or extremely low white blood cell count. The doctor will test the bone marrow to see what the next step will be. If the bone marrow is “empty” then we will stay put and just wait for his numbers to go up, but if there is any leukemia, then he will have to retreat.
Sal’s numbers were about the same. His white blood count is 0.5, Hemoglobin 9.2, and platelets 15. He doesn’t have to have any transfusions right now, but if he has any bleeding like he did earlier this week, he will have to have a platelets transfusion.
Sal was a little shocked to learn that he only weighs 188 pounds now. He weighed 205 when he came in so needless to say he was a little shocked when the nurse told him he weighed 17 pounds lighter. He still looks good so I am not sure why he is upset….I know I would throw a party if I lost 17 pounds
Again, THANK YOU everyone for your help and support. We couldn’t do it without the help of our friends and family!
Sal had a pretty good day. He went for a walk around the fourth floor, but felt pretty tired after his walk. We spoke to the doctor today about what we need to do around the house. I explained to him about the carpet in our house and he suggested getting laminate flooring so we wouldn’t have as many problems with mold, mildew, and dust. We can have plants in the house but we can’t have cut flowers because of the mold/mildew that grows on the flowers after a few days. We don’t have to get rid of the cats as long as we keep them away from Sal…..but if it was the doctor he would get rid of them, he doesn’t like cats. The doctor also said if Sal wanted to get tropical fish he could tell him all about them. Whatever, I am not getting fish!
We asked the doctor what the normal numbers should be and this is what he said
White blood count 4-10 (which is 4,000 to 10,000)
Hemoglobin 12-14
Platelets around 130
Sal’s test results were White blood count 0.7, hemoglobin 8.9, and platelets 20.