Update from Dr. Nguyen office visit

Hey All! We took Dad to his first follow up at Dr. Nguyen's office since he has been home (has been home for 8 days now).  I am happy to report that the visit was EXTREMELY positive!!!  Dad's numbers are all increasing on their own, thank God! When we left the hospital a week ago his white blood count was at 2.7, now it is 5.5 (back in normal range).  Within a week! Amazing.  His hemoglobin is just under the benchmark number but is increasing, which means the bone marrow is functioning properly on its own and producing only the normal cells, no leukemic cells (Dr. did a test for this and it came back negative, hooray!!!!!).

The doc's words were "I couldn't have asked for a better report".  How exciting is that!  He is a little low on his protein level, so he needs to continue to get as much protein and nourishment as he can.  He was given an appetite stimulant medication (as you will remember he has hardly eaten anything in 5 weeks and has lost 32 pounds).  This medicine has really worked.  He is eating like a champ!  His blood sugar is still a little high, but this is not a worry at the moment.  He can maintain for a few months at this elevated level without anything happening.  Dr. said we would revisit his sugar levels a little later.

He is still on his low level of oxygen, however the doc said to take it off and leave his finger pulse oximeter on to watch what his oxygen saturation level is.  If it remains at 96-97% while off, he can leave it off!  The goal is to wean.  While dad takes his showers, it is obviously off and he maintains at 97%!  Doc said his lungs sounded excellent and the method they are using right now for his recuperation is absolutely working.

You should see him guys, he is going outside to sit and eat breakfast on the patio, went on a walk with my mom with the dogs the other night around the block, and is gaining tons of strength back.

He will go to Dr. Raman's office next week to see how much longer he needs to remain on the pill form antibiotics he was discharged with.

The final "checklist" item we have is to go for another scan of the bones, doc suspects this will come back clean but we need to conclusively identify the spots on the bones.

Thanks again everyone for reading, praying, and staying interested in dad's recovery process.  In my prayers I constantly thank God for those who are praying for dad.  We have almost 8,000 views on this blog.  He has so many people who are praying and cheering him on.  HUGE hugs and thanks to each one of you!