Day +14 (post-transplant)

One of the only pictures I took while we were in the hospital. Chris'
arms and stomach were covered in these bruises just from small
needles (but don't worry, they didn't hurt) and he broke out in
extremely uncomfortable rashes under his arms and other ones on
his back, stomach and legs.

Today was Chris' first day as an outpatient again and we were definitely nervous showing up for this appointment this morning. We were just waiting for them to tell us that Chris would need to be admitted again.

And when we got there it almost happened.

While Chris was doing well, a doctor from the infectious disease team had recommended Chris be on antibiotic that requires an intravenous injection every six hours. To administer this drug, Chris would need to stay in the hospital.

Luckily for Chris, after one of his own doctors spoke to him, he decided that Chris will try taking a different combination of antibiotics that only require one intravenous injection per day. As long as Chris responds well to this treatment, he can remain an outpatient. We both sighed with relief when we heard this.

In addition to receiving antibiotics, Chris had his blood and urine tested this morning.

His counts were:

WBC: 3.7

The other random photo I took of Chris getting his first
blood transfusion.

It is normal in the first few weeks to have your counts move around a lot, and then will start to stabilize. We were also expecting his counts to go down a bit since he is nolonger getting neupogen that boosts stem cell growth.

Platelets: 48

Hemoglobin: 112 (it was 106 yesterday)

By the time we left today, they did not have his neutrophil count, so we will probably always be a day behind with this information.

We are due back at the hospital really early tomorrow morning and Chris REALLY needs his sleep! Thank you to everyone for congrats for being home. It really does feel great.