Tuesday Morning

Hi Everyone,

Eric continues to hold his clotting capabilities steady, and his white blood cells have dropped low enough to start giving him the second medicine in his treatment. It's a pill called ATRA, and it's a derivative of vitamin A. I don't think it's supposed to be as tramatic on his body as the chemo was, but I need to ask a few more questions about it. Two days ago, the doctor warned us that Eric has 100% chance of getting an infection, and sure enough, he started getting a fever yesterday and kept it up all night. Right now, it's at about 102 deg F. They've been giving him a broad spectrum of antibiotics, but now they're also taking cultures of his blood to try to target a specific one. In the meantime, it's Tylenol, cold packs, and and a cooling blanket for Eric. Again, I'm glad he won't remember this along with all the other nasty things from this past week. On the bright side, they have knocked his % O2 ventilator setting down to 50% (from 55%). Slow and steady wins the race, right? Also, they switched one of his sedatives yesterday to another one that is easier to ween people off of. This is in preparation of him waking up. I have my doubts it will be before Christmas, but that's ok. We'll just have to extend Christmas this year for as long as we need to. I'm quite alright with leaving my Christmas tree up all year... it was hard enough putting it up, none-the-less taking it down! Ok ok, I only put the tree up. My wonderful brother and soon to be sister-in-law decorated it while I did quality control from the couch. My two high school friends, Minh-Bao and Becky, helped with ornaments, and Mom took care of getting all of the supplies. Thanks again to everyone.

We've been getting so many nice cards from people. Thanks for your thoughtfulness; it really does brighten the day.

Love,
Melissa