Steps Backward

Hi all,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. The Linker and Lonn families had a nice Christmas lunch here at the hospital.

Eric had some set backs the past couple days. The doctors warned us that we would be taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back along the way to recovery. The steps backward are hard for us to watch.

Eric had a bad reaction to a red blood cell transfusion last night. The nurse immediately discontinued the tranfusion and sent the remaining blood to the lab for analysis - guessing there were some antibodies in it that he was sensitive to. They performed an EKG and concluded Eric's heart was fine. This reaction caused his heart rate and blood pressure to sky rocket. Having a little elevated blood pressure is actually good in his current condition, but he went over 200 breaking a blood vessel in his left eye. They had to give him blood pressure medicine to lower his blood pressure.

The doctors performed a doppler ultrasound, a technique that evaluates blood velocity as it flows through blood vessels, this morning. They found a blood clot in Eric's left arm. This is a concern because Eric can't have the medicine used to disolve a clot due to his leukemia. We just have to anxiously wait for the clot to dissolve on its own.

The doctors are no longer talking about taking Eric off the ventilator anytime soon. His lungs are needing more support to get the right amount of oxygen.

On a positive note, Eric's temperature has come down slightly. He is still fighting an infection and a fungus with his weak immune system. He is currently at 101.5 degrees F. This has been reduced from the 103 degrees he was running yesterday. Hopefully his temperature will continue to drop.

Your thoughts and prayers are needed. Thank you for the continued support.

Love,
Sara