Day +134

"This ain't no thang!"
This is Joe on Morphine, Ativan, and Benadryl.













Last night, I forgot to mention that we learned that Joe is CMV positive yet again. So far, no other sources of infection have been found. It is possible that the CMV may be responsible for the fever, and maybe even all of Joe's other crazy lab reports. Time will tell. Between the Infection Diseases doctors and the Hem-Onc doctors it was decided that the Ganciclovir and the Cidofovir just aren't working. An executive decision was made to put Joe back on Foscarnet, despite the fact that it worked at the expense of a very un-fun side effect. As soon as Joe feels any indication that the un-fun side effect (for Joe's sake I'd rather not go into detail here...) is returning, changes will be made. In the meantime the doctors have done what little they can to try and prevent that un-fun side effect.

This morning Joe finally had the BIG bone marrow biopsy. Joe was given Ativan and Morphine before the biopsy which made him very calm. I think the doctor doing the procedure was far more nervous than Joe was. (Although the doctor did a good job.) Joe's platelet transfusion ended up happening after the biopsy. He is always pre-medicated with Benadryl to decrease the chance of a reaction. With that morning cocktail of Ativan, Morphine, and Benadryl, you can just imagine how lovely Joe's afternoon was! Every single time Joe blinked he would end up snoring. When something would wake him up Joe would grin a bit, occasionally utter a word or two, then resume his snoring. When Joe actually had to physically get up to go to the bathroom he would say, "I'm happy..." It was really cute.

By late morning, we learned that the platelet transfusion brought Joe's platelets up from 17 k/mcL to 19 k/mcL . Generally, the cut-off for transfusions is 10 k/mcL (on Monday, Joe's count was 6 k/mcL ...normal range is [145-445] k/mcL), but with Joe experiencing fevers and being CMV positive, the cut-off became 20 k/mcL . So Joe had yet another platelet transfusion in the afternoon.

It usually takes a few days for the results to come back from a bone marrow biopsy. Please pray that no matter what the results show that we are prepared to proceed with grace and faith.

That is about it for today. Joe was happy to see that a contestant from Monroeville, PA was on Jeopardy this evening, and he won! Interestingly enough, last week we saw a contestant on Jeopardy who was from Indiana, PA - he also won, the night that we watched. Nice to know that there are such smart people from our old stomping grounds. :)

Thank you so very much to:
A.M. & A.D
Cousin Lilly
April & Paul
Phyllis Miller
Frank & Janet
Alice
2nd Auntie & Uncle, Li-Ming, I-Ju, & David
Indiana Mom
Shiu-Bi & Jsiang-Jung Kuo
TC & Yuen Chan
Evonne, Thomas, & Leah
The Baird Family
Vince
Sara M.
Shelley
Louis
Ariel, Kelly, & Walker
and 2 "Anonymous" people

for sending cards to Joe. It really brightens his day, when he is at the hospital, to receive a pile of cards. So thank you for showering Joe with love! (p.s. Even though you fill out sender info, if the card is not signed in the message area, we don't know who it is from. We still appreciate the love though!)

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you maye be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
~1 Peter 4:12-13