The condition Graham was admitted back into the hospital on Thursday was a little frightening. We believed that it was going to get really ugly - and it still might, but it looks as if that has been pushed back a little. This gives us room to relax a little.
With Rosenblatt out of town, Dr. Huang has taken over. He informed us over the weekend that he has seen improvement in his lungs. His CAT Scan and X-Rays show clearing and his lungs are sounding better. Now, it means nothing since he feels worse, but it appears something is going right. Dr. Huang explained to us that even though some patients get quick results, it is rare. With Photopheresis, it takes awhile for your body to absorb the stronger white blood cells and recover from such an evasive treatment. He will be doing another bronchoscopy on Graham tomorrow and doing more cultures. The hope is they come back negative and he will then start heavy doses of steroids. This will make his immune system much lower than it is now, but it is nothing like the "bomb" or "crash" of his immune system that they were discussing last week. This has been put on the back burner for now - whew.
His shortness of breath may be due to his anemia. All transplant patients are slightly anemic, it comes with the territory, but treatment is always determined how you feel, not necessarily how your hemoglobin numbers are. Graham has been having blood draws everyday and with Photo, blood is always left behind in the machine. Therefore, it is not a surprise that his blood levels and hemoglobin have dropped into such low numbers. Some of the side effects, which if you've ever given blood you've felt, are headaches and shortness of breath. They want to hold off on blood transfusions as much as possible since they are still hoping for a 2nd transplant (the more outside tissues in Graham, the harder it is on his immune system - I think :/ ) but if it gets bad enough, they will proceed. Which they did on Friday evening. They also took a blood gas on him. Google it if you would like to know what that is. I can't even write about it without passing out.
Not that this has anything to do with me, because it doesn't in the slightest; but I have been tested this weekend with blood. They say the best way to get over a fear is to be immersed in whatever you are afraid of. The claim is that fight or flight will eventually ease up and you will be cured. However, the fear of blood has the reverse effect on the body than all the other fears. Your body actually shuts down, not tense up. One cannot fight or run away. So we drop, become nauseous, can't eat, can't sleep because of mental reminders of what was witnessed, or faint. Luckily I haven't fainted this go round, but the rest of it has happened. Ugh - God's sense of humor is so weird.
Dr. Huang is hopeful Graham is now at the lowest he will get and that some improvement will come. Fingers crossed!
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