Yesterday Sal still had the rash and now has sores in his mouth.  He also has two cysts under each arm that hurt really bad.  The doctor started him on an antibiotic and is hoping this will help with the rash, sores, and cysts.

As of this morning the rash was clearing up so I guess the medication is working.  He still has the mouth sores this morning, but not as bad.

Sal is still getting his daily neupogen shot to help increase his white blood counts.

The doctor said yesterday that it still looks like Sal will be going home on Friday, we haven’t seen the doctor today.

His blood counts are

Yesterday’s numbers

White Blood Count   0.6

Hemoglobin  10.4

Platelets   25

Today’s numbers

White Blood Count   1.0

Hemoglobin  10.4

Platelets  16

Sal still has the rash and the nurse said that they are going to get Sal some hypor allergenic sheets and a different soap.  They are hoping this will help with the rash.  They also started applying antibiotic on it last night but that didn’t help.

Sal’s numbers today are:

White Blood Cells   0.5

Platelets   35 (this went up because of the platelet transfusion last night)

Hemoglobin  10.2

Sorry we haven’t updated the blog lately.  I usually update it, but I forgot to do it yesterday when I came up to see Sal.  Sal is doing ok, he has a really bad rash on his back that looks like acne.  It has cleared up some but not a lot.  He keeps having problems with feeling like he itches everywhere especially at night.  They have been giving him benedryl to help with this.  They don’t want him to scratch because it could cause an infection.

Sal has had to have two platelets transfusions in the past three days.  One transfusion on Friday and one tonight.  His platelets have been really low.  Because he has received several platelets transfusions his body has developed antibodies that are starting to become resistent to them so he is having to receive more transfusions.  This is why the doctor does not like to give him any transfusions until his numbers are really low to prevent the resistence.

His numbers have hit the lowest they can go, so we are just waiting for his numbers to go back up so he can come home for a couple of weeks before he has to come back for his third round of consolidation chemo.

Sal had a couple of visitors today, his friend Justin came up this morning and our friend Maria came up this afternoon with Starbucks for him   If you would like to come by, please let us know prior to coming up.  He does have his bad days and doesn’t always feel like having people up to visit.  If you are sick or even feel a little sick, please do not come up to visit.  He would love to receive a text from his friends, so he knows that they are still thinking about him.

Thank you for all of the support, we wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of our friends and family.

Here are his numbers for the past few days

Friday Day 11 9/21/12

White Blood Count   0.6

Hemoglobin   11

Platelets   6

Saturday Day 12  9/22/12

White Blood Count   0.5

Hemoglobin  Not sure he didn’t write it down

Platelets 26 (this went up because he had a transfusion the day before)

Sunday Day 13   9/23/12

White Blood Count    0.5

Hemoglobin   10.8

Platelets    13 (Received a transfusion tonight)

Day 10 Sal is now considered neutropenic so he can’t have any fresh fruits, vegetables, plants or flowers in his room.  Sal so far hasn’t had any side effects from this round of chemo except being really tired.

Day 14 in his last chemo treatment was when he got sepsis the last time and we are hoping that won’t happen again.

We will keep you updated on how he is doing.  Thank you for your support!

His blood counts are

White Blood Count  1.7

Hemoglobin  11.5

Platelets   16

Sal is doing ok.  He is really tired because of the chemo.  He has a rash on his head and back so the doctor is going to give him some medication to help with the rash.  The doctor said to anticipate on the numbers dropping, which isn’t anything we would be surprised by, because this is what happens.

Because Sal’s numbers are going down, he does not want to risk getting sick like he did last time, so please no visitors at this time. The kids and I have been around people that have had the stomach flu so we are even waiting a few days before we come up to see him.  We do not want to take a chance at all of him getting sick.

Keep in mind even if we are cautious and he doesn’t have visitors, he could still get sick.  When he had sepsis last time they were not sure how he got it.

Sal’s counts

White Blood Count   4

Hemoglobin    11.5

Platelets    29

Today is the third day of being in the hospital for this round of chemo.  Sal received chemo on the first day and will receive another round tonight and then Saturday night will be the last bag for this hospital stay.  They will then keep him for about two weeks to make sure he doesn’t get sick like he did last time.

His numbers will begin to drop in a few days….right now you can visit him without having to wear a mask.  If you would like to visit him, please let us know prior to coming up just to make sure he is doing ok and doesn’t have visitors already.  The nurses only want a maximum of two people in the room.

Thank you for the support and we will keep you updated…

Please make sure you tell everyone that you know that we are still looking for a bone marrow donor.  They can sign up on the national database at www.bethematch.org.  Once you sign up, they will send a swab kit to your home and then you will send it back and that is it.  You may not be a match for Sal but you may be able to help another family just like us.

Yesterday, Sal had an appointment with his doctor. We weren’t sure if he was going to be admitted or if it would be just a checkup.  Luckily, it was just a checkup.  The doctor said that he would admit Sal on 9/11 for his next round of consolidation chemo therapy.  The doctor said that he would do a maximum of 4 consolidation treatments, this will be the second consolidation.  Once the consolidations are done, he will continue to monitor Sal.  Once the consolidations are done, we are hoping this will keep Sal in remission and we will be able to find a donor so that they can do a transplant.  We have to find a donor for Sal so that the Leukemia doesn’t come back.  Once he is done with chemo, there is a very high chance of the Leukemia coming back so the sooner we find a donor the better off he will be.  If you have not registered with the www.marrow.org website, please do!  You may not match Sal, but you never know, you may match someone else!  There are so many families out there needing the same thing as us and if you can’t help us, maybe you can help them and hopefully that family has told their friends and families the same thing and maybe their friends or family members could help us!  I know it is a hard decision, but just think of how many lives you would change if you could help them.