Saturday June 7th

Today overall would be considered an "ok" day, dad felt uncomfortable and a bit uneasy.  He is still having a hard time finding the desire to eat.  If he eats a few bites throughout the day, that would be considered a pretty good eating day.  The results of the CT scan from yesterday came back with a little fluid in his colon but Dr. said that was ok and is a result of the treatments, which cause inflammation (will heal on its own).

Dr. Nguyen surprised us with a daytime visit around 4 pm (he usually comes in between 9 pm - 10 pm after he tucks his kids in for the evening).  Again, he was really happy with how dad is recovering from the chemo, how his body is handling the side effects and the new developments that occur, and again said he was surprised that dad hasn't lost his hair yet!  It's a little gray from all the stress we have put him through over the years, but not gone! :-)

Dr. Nguyen was there to see dad rock his physical therapy session, he walked to the door of his room and back three times and did several other exercises.  This is the first time Dr. Nguyen has seen him up and mobile since he's been his patient - he was very pleased!

It is day 19 of his hospital stay, and he sure is ready to go home.  As Nicole mentioned in the previous blog post, Dr. says he has two more weeks to recover.  The point of the recovery phase is to allow the bone marrow to heal, begin producing more white blood cells (those come back first), then once those get higher the platelets will come back as will the red count.  He suspects within the next 7-9 days he won't need any further transfusions and will not feel nearly as fatigued and weak.  He also stated again that dad's recovery has pleasantly surprised him considering how sick he was when he was admitted.  I've said this before and I'll say it again, dad has surprised ALL of the doctors that have cared for him at the hospital thus far (surgeons, hospitalists, critical care specialist).  It is just a clear message from the Lord that He is in control and is healing my dad. Some of the early caregivers and doctors have been calling my dad's room and will stop by just to check in on him - extremely thoughtful!

Dr. Nguyen also talked about his life at home once he is discharged this first time.  He will probably need a home health nurse at first and will be anemic, but is urged to live his normal life and with time will feel like himself again.  Please keep the prayers coming and the positive well wishes, he loves the fact that we write this blog to keep all of his friends of other family members informed on his behalf - and he LOVES hearing your messages we receive on this blog and on facebook.  See my post "trouble commenting on this blog?" for instructions on how to leave a comment if you need some assistance.  :-) Thanks!