May 27-30th update on Dad's condition

Thank you all for the constant prayer.  My Dad needs every prayer and well wish you have!  It's been a few days since an update, and things are happening in there so constantly and quickly, so if we don't write it down its easy for things to "mush" together, so I'll do my best to give a summary of the past three days or so:

He has concluded his cycle of chemotherapy, but will continue to feel terrible as long as the chemo is in his system.  He has encountered a few scares over the past few days with his kidneys and his PICC line which they had to remove, and is being watched extremely carefully by Dr. Raman (the infectious disease physician), in addition to Dr. Pacheco-Garcia (the pulmonary critical care physician we had close contact with while we were in ICU), the other Hospitalists and of course his Oncologist Dr. Nguyen who are all monitoring him closely.  

Nurses and CNAs are in and out of his room constantly, which makes it hard for dad to sleep.  He has had a rough encounter with the hiccups, which jar his whole body with each one thus making it difficult to sleep for this reason as well.  Dr. Nguyen tried a new medication to help with this, we'll see today (5/31) if it worked! He has received several blood and platelet transfusions and will continue to.  His blood pressure and blood sugar levels continue to remain very high, all due to the chemotherapy.  He will go from feverish and ice pat downs to freezing chills, all part of the chemo.  He is also being treated as a preventive measure for a few other side effects of the chemo.  We are still monitoring his lungs and he still receives breathing treatments and has been asked to do a couple breathing exercises an hour.  Even with his setbacks, he has and will continue to overcome these sidebar issues! This is why he must remain in the hospital for a few more weeks.

He has been too weak to get out of his bed so he hasn't had further physical therapy, until yesterday (May 30th).  Dr. Nguyen came by for a visit around 9:30 pm and was pleased with where dad is currently.  The nursing staff is on the phone all throughout each day with Dr. Nguyen's office, which is wonderful that everyone is working in sync so well.

Dad's White Blood Count (WBC) is currently at .1 - the lowest it can go and which is what we want, but this means he has zero immune system.  Dr. Nguyen said that he will perform a bone marrow biopsy on dad next Tuesday to test the bone marrow to see if there are any cancer cells remaining.  We should have the results of that test by next Friday.  Prayer push request:  Let's pray for a clear bone marrow biopsy result and for NO more cancer cells in there! This would be a HUGE step in the direction to full remission.  Prayers, prayers, prayers!!! Thank you SO much.