Hi Everyone,
The blood cultures drawn at 10 am this morning, came back with a white blood cell count of 1000!!! Hemoglobin and platelets were up, too! I waited to see what the next labs were going to be before posting anything. The last count was done on blood drawn at 4 pm with a white blood cell count of 700. This is 4 consecutive counts of 500 or greater! We are all so excited. We did not see the hematologist today, so we are anxious to see if the cells that are coming back are normal, healthly cells. Hopefully we'll hear this news tomorrow morning. As for other things, Eric is pretty much the same on ventilator settings. He did not require dialysis today. They said that his blood urea nitrogen (BUN) number was high, but the other numbers that they watch were not. So they are assuming that his BUN was unnaturally high for other another reason (for example, if blood is absorbed in the GI track, it can lead to this). He is starting to look more and more like Eric. A lot of the swelling has gone down, and his bruises are starting to clear up. (He had some pretty awful looking bruises on his arms from all of the fluid he was given combined with the lack of movement while sedated.) All in all, we had a pretty good day! Please keep praying for a remission and that no leukemia cells show up in the blood. The hematologist mentioned yesterday that it would not be good at all if the leukemia comes back while he is in this condition. His body is pretty weak right now, and we need to give him time to heal.
Until tomorrow!
Love,
Melissa
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Premature Excitement
I just got the results from the blood drawn at 10am this morning, and the white blood cells are back down to 200, which is too low to accurately count. Maybe all of the excitement about bone marrow function returning was a little premature. The hemotologists have been saying that the average time is 24 to 28 days after the first dose of chemo, and today is Eric's 24th day. Also, it could take a little longer with him, since he's been so sick. We still have time. I'll try to contain my excitement and wait till we have a more definite count to tell everyone next time.
Love,
Melissa
Love,
Melissa
Bone Marrow Returning?!?
Hi everyone!
They're drawing new labs now, but the blood labs drawn at 4 this morning showed that his platelets, hemoglobin and white blood cells were slightly higher!! The hemotologist said that the white blood cells that are showing up are neutrophils, which are good! They're going to continue to watch the numbers and hopefully by Monday will be able to do another bone marrow biopsy. This will let them know if he is in a remission. The hemotologist did warn that sometimes when the white blood cells return, they start to attack the parts of his body that have been sick. So, if he gets a little worse in the next few days, that is normal, and not something to be worried about.
The critical care team was able to get a CT of Eric's chest last night to get a better look at his lungs. They said that there is still a lot of fluid and inflammation in the bottom of his lungs. They also said that his lungs look stiff, which is why it is taking a lot of pressure to inflate them for a breath. Hopefully, this will continue to get better. We just need to keep slowly weening him off. He's currently at 45% O2, a PEEP of 5, and PC over PEEP of 40.
It's still a little premature to know if his bone marrow is really functioning, but hopefully the numbers continue to rise!!
Love,
Melissa
They're drawing new labs now, but the blood labs drawn at 4 this morning showed that his platelets, hemoglobin and white blood cells were slightly higher!! The hemotologist said that the white blood cells that are showing up are neutrophils, which are good! They're going to continue to watch the numbers and hopefully by Monday will be able to do another bone marrow biopsy. This will let them know if he is in a remission. The hemotologist did warn that sometimes when the white blood cells return, they start to attack the parts of his body that have been sick. So, if he gets a little worse in the next few days, that is normal, and not something to be worried about.
The critical care team was able to get a CT of Eric's chest last night to get a better look at his lungs. They said that there is still a lot of fluid and inflammation in the bottom of his lungs. They also said that his lungs look stiff, which is why it is taking a lot of pressure to inflate them for a breath. Hopefully, this will continue to get better. We just need to keep slowly weening him off. He's currently at 45% O2, a PEEP of 5, and PC over PEEP of 40.
It's still a little premature to know if his bone marrow is really functioning, but hopefully the numbers continue to rise!!
Love,
Melissa
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Tuesday, January 5th
It's almost 7pm on Tuesday, and Eric has had another calm day. I am so thankful that he's had a break to recover after all the excitement last week. I've kind of put off writing a post all day because I didn't know what to say. No new things have changed, and he's slowly and surely working at getting better. I then realized that this blog has been passed around to many people, even to some who have never met him. It is so very touching to know that people all over the place have him in their thoughts and prayers, and are really rooting for Team Eric. I thought I'd take this time to share a little about him, so you have something to think about while reading his latest vital signs. : )
I first met Eric through a fairly strange connection. We both were in the Purdue Marching Band, but I would not have met him when I did if it wasn't for us each having high school friends that were cousins. As it was, Luke Horst needed a ride to Purdue to visit Eric and talked his cousin, Jessica (Lenz) Harper, into coming to visit me. Eric and I were both in the pep band for the women's basketball team, and that's where Luke and Jessica met us. Jessica then tells me that we were invited to hang out at Eric's apartment, so we follow them back. The only problem was that Luke didn't tell Eric and his roommates that he had invited us. So here we were following these guys home, and as Eric later said, "I had no idea why you were there, but I was NOT going to complain about a pretty blond following me home!"
Since then, I've come to find out what a great guy he is. He has the kind of personality that puts everyone at ease. He has a great sense of humor and a very contagious grin. He puts his whole heart into things that interest him, and spends countless hours on his hobbies such as cars, golf, basketball, home improvement projects, and as much as I hate to say it, Xbox. (But Melissa! Just ONE more game? Jon just came on to play, pleeeeeeease?!) Did I mention he's terribly persistant? He's also very patient, and takes time to teach people. He had the opportunity to teach a class called How Stuff Works while he was at Purdue, and absolutely loved it.
All in all, I miss him very much. I KNOW there are plenty of good Eric stories out there. Does anyone else want to share?
Love,
Melissa
I first met Eric through a fairly strange connection. We both were in the Purdue Marching Band, but I would not have met him when I did if it wasn't for us each having high school friends that were cousins. As it was, Luke Horst needed a ride to Purdue to visit Eric and talked his cousin, Jessica (Lenz) Harper, into coming to visit me. Eric and I were both in the pep band for the women's basketball team, and that's where Luke and Jessica met us. Jessica then tells me that we were invited to hang out at Eric's apartment, so we follow them back. The only problem was that Luke didn't tell Eric and his roommates that he had invited us. So here we were following these guys home, and as Eric later said, "I had no idea why you were there, but I was NOT going to complain about a pretty blond following me home!"
Since then, I've come to find out what a great guy he is. He has the kind of personality that puts everyone at ease. He has a great sense of humor and a very contagious grin. He puts his whole heart into things that interest him, and spends countless hours on his hobbies such as cars, golf, basketball, home improvement projects, and as much as I hate to say it, Xbox. (But Melissa! Just ONE more game? Jon just came on to play, pleeeeeeease?!) Did I mention he's terribly persistant? He's also very patient, and takes time to teach people. He had the opportunity to teach a class called How Stuff Works while he was at Purdue, and absolutely loved it.
All in all, I miss him very much. I KNOW there are plenty of good Eric stories out there. Does anyone else want to share?
Love,
Melissa
Monday, January 4, 2010
New Vent Settings
It's Monday evening, and Eric has had a fairly stable day. He's completely off of the paralytic and is breathing fine. I've since learned that his current ventilator setting has a new number for all of us to watch before he can been weened off the ventilator. Since he's on a mode that stimulates breaths by applying a set pressure, we have to be able to reduce the pressure he is at. So currently his ventilator settings are:
O2: 45%
PEEP: 5 cm H2O
Respiration Rate: 36 breaths/min
PC above PEEP: 40 cm H2O (This is the new one and is the pressure required over the PEEP to make him take a breath.)
His PC above PEEP is fairly high, which is why some swelling has occurred. Once he becomes stable at an oxygen level of 40% or maybe even 45%, they'll start trying to reduce this number. Eventually, they'll be able to switch the mode on the ventilator so that he'll be in control of his own breathing pressures, volumes and rate.
Melissa
O2: 45%
PEEP: 5 cm H2O
Respiration Rate: 36 breaths/min
PC above PEEP: 40 cm H2O (This is the new one and is the pressure required over the PEEP to make him take a breath.)
His PC above PEEP is fairly high, which is why some swelling has occurred. Once he becomes stable at an oxygen level of 40% or maybe even 45%, they'll start trying to reduce this number. Eventually, they'll be able to switch the mode on the ventilator so that he'll be in control of his own breathing pressures, volumes and rate.
Melissa
A few breathing problems
Good Morning,
It seems Eric had a little bit of trouble breathing early this morning. His oxygen levels remained fine in his blood, but his carbon dioxide levels were too high. Since CO2 is part of the acid base regulation, his blood pH dropped as well. The doctors said that he was starting to fight the ventilator a bit, which caused him to not breathe out as much as he was supposed to. In order to correct this, several things changed. They already have him on a lot of sedatives (he is a big guy), so they decided to put him on some medicine to temporarily paralyze him. This allowed the ventilator to take complete control and return his CO2 to normal levels. They also added a few electrodes to his forehead to monitor his level of sedation. This all happened around 2-3 am. At 7:30 this morning, they said they are planning to ween him off of the paralytic medicine to see if he will breath normally again. The doctors think that his pH drop was only a brief reaction to his combined problem of fighting the ventilator and his dialysis machine going in and out all night. Like I said, they are planning to ween him off of the paralytic, and continue to drop his oxygen levels on the ventilator (they bumped it up to 80% when they were having the ventilator problems). His current ventilator setttings are: 60% O2, PEEP 5 cm H2O, and respiratory rate 36 breaths/min. His oxgyen saturation remains around 99 - 100%. We have yet to see the full range of doctors this morning, so hopefully we'll be able get a few more questions answered.
Love,
Melissa
It seems Eric had a little bit of trouble breathing early this morning. His oxygen levels remained fine in his blood, but his carbon dioxide levels were too high. Since CO2 is part of the acid base regulation, his blood pH dropped as well. The doctors said that he was starting to fight the ventilator a bit, which caused him to not breathe out as much as he was supposed to. In order to correct this, several things changed. They already have him on a lot of sedatives (he is a big guy), so they decided to put him on some medicine to temporarily paralyze him. This allowed the ventilator to take complete control and return his CO2 to normal levels. They also added a few electrodes to his forehead to monitor his level of sedation. This all happened around 2-3 am. At 7:30 this morning, they said they are planning to ween him off of the paralytic medicine to see if he will breath normally again. The doctors think that his pH drop was only a brief reaction to his combined problem of fighting the ventilator and his dialysis machine going in and out all night. Like I said, they are planning to ween him off of the paralytic, and continue to drop his oxygen levels on the ventilator (they bumped it up to 80% when they were having the ventilator problems). His current ventilator setttings are: 60% O2, PEEP 5 cm H2O, and respiratory rate 36 breaths/min. His oxgyen saturation remains around 99 - 100%. We have yet to see the full range of doctors this morning, so hopefully we'll be able get a few more questions answered.
Love,
Melissa
Sunday, January 3, 2010
8am Sunday Morning
I walked into Eric's room this morning to find he's at 40% oxygen on his ventilator and dropped 25 lbs since gaining 57 lbs in fluid from the time he was checked in!!! Keep up the good work, Eric!!
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