Some blood counts dropping

Monday, July 9, 2012

Finally we are seeing a response in Dillon's blood counts to this last round of chemo.  The doctors were a bit perplexed,because most people who receive the level of chemo Dillon got this past week have a severe and significant drop in their counts almost immediately.  Of course Mr. D has to do things differently.  Maybe deep down he just wants to stand out from the crowd (wink wink).  So today his counts finally dropped quite a bit and he received a blood transfusion because his hematocrit and hemoglobin (both components of red blood) were low.

First he was given Tylenol and Benadryl.  Tylenol for the discomfort and Benadryl to ward off an allergic reaction to what is essentially a foreign body being dripped into his blood steam.

Then 4 hours for the blood to transfuse.  It looks disgusting....a bag of dark red blood hanging on the IV pole.  Dillon got pretty upset about the site of it.  Super mama to the rescue....can we please drape a blanket or in our case the prayer shall over the IV pole so that the bag and tube full of blood are not visible.  "Oh sure the nurses exclaim, that is a great idea."  Surely my  kid is the not first one to express concern, disgust, and worry over the site of a pouch of blood hanging in midair next to their bed.  Makes you wonder.

Dillon and I are about fed up with the food situation here.  We continue to have our food stolen out of the community fridge.  Yes, they are all labeled with Dillon's name and room number on them.  Today I inquired yet again about having a mini fridge in our room....the answer to which was NO!!! We were given several reasons, none of which I found that plausible...but whatever...no is no.  So, tomorrow my mom is actually bringing us a toolbox from our home that we use to lock up medication.  Yes, it has a pad lock on it.   Don't laugh!!!!!  We are going to lock our food and then put it in the community fridge.  Sean said...what if they take the whole dang box??  I said...I will have the nurses go search the rooms and find the stinking box if that happens.  It might sound petty or insignificant...but when one tries to feed oneself and one's child healthy, organic, and tasty foods; as well as when people bring special treats at Dillon's request; and they keep being consumed by some random person; and when one is facing being in this situation for multiple more weeks (yesterday marked 3 weeks), then something drastic has to be done.  Thus, the lock box for the food arriving bright and early tomorrow morning.