New Man

My husband is a new man! Yesterday, he went from looking like this, to looking like this, to looking like this. Just as Gretchen says, "bald is beautiful." Joe looks as handsome as ever. My mother said, "so now you have a sexy, bald, husband?" Joe's mom likes to joke that I'm caring for a baby...with a 21 year old mom. Joe says he now knows what it is like to be an old old man. He has no hair. He shuffles from the bed, to the restroom, to the hospital, and back again. Reading is his main source of entertainment. His diet consists of Ensure, popsicles, Jell-o, and millions of pills. Although, Joe's mouth sores started getting better today. Yay! Joe's platelets continue to rise little by little. His WBC look like they are creeping up as well. So things are going as well as they could be. Tomorrow will make 2 weeks since the transplant.

I must share the story of Joe's hair. He started off the day with a full head of hair. During his visit to the hospital, Joe was really fascinated by how easy it was to pull out his hair. Joe jumps in the shower after every hospital visit. Yesterday afternoon when he started washing his hair, it all started falling out. When Joe stepped out he had big bald patches on the front of his head.

In the evening, Joe's dad had requested that I make some chili. Joe LOVES chili, but unfortunately he couldn't eat any with his mouth sores. So while I had chili with my in-loves, Joe found a way to entertain himself. He went to the bathroom and started yanking out all of his hair. He figured this was better than leaving trails of hair everywhere and waiting for it to all fall out on its own. After dinner, I went to help. It was actually really funny in a weird kind of way. So by the end of the evening, Joe was officially bald!

That is about it. We are really encouraged by his progress, and just keep praying that all continues to go smoothly. Praise the Lord!

Uh-oh...:)

It may be starting. Joe just might be losing his hair. Maybe. Yesterday, before and after his post-hospital-visit shower, I noticed all of these loose hairs on Joe. We then discovered that of all places, Joe was starting to lose hair from his armpits! It was just sliding right out. Joe then decided to test the hair on his head. That stuff is much more stubborn, and yet Joe was still able to pull out tiny little tufts of hair. We buzzed Joe's hair yesterday afternoon since it was getting really shaggy. Joe is really fascinated by the prospect of becoming completely bald. He seems to be encouraging it by randomly yanking at the little hairs on his head. Still, it looks pretty thick up there. Today, there were fewer loose hairs. We thought maybe he would wake up to a pillow covered with hair, but that hasn't happened yet. There was just one lonely hair, possibly two! We shall wait and see.

Joe's nausea and belly pain has pretty much vanished. To replace those ailments, Joe now has a very stubborn headache that appears throughout the day. Also, he is starting to develop sores in his mouth that are irritating. The one positive thing that has resulted from the mouth sores is that Joe has an excuse to eat popsicles. His nurse suggested it this afternoon, and Joe was very excited about it! Another praise worthy thing is that even though Joe's last platelet transfusion was a bit of a nightmare, his counts went up! Yesterday it was 40, today it was 45. Joe's hemoglobin level is steadil decreasing, and we're anticipating a blood transfusion within the next week.

Some happy news about one of the girls we've been praying for. Amy is more than sixty days out from her transplant, and her thirty day bone marrow biopsy showed that she is 100% engrafted. Woohoo, and Praise the Lord! Also, pray for Alivia and her family as she will be undergoing a splenectomy in a few days, and a transplant a few weeks after that.

A very Happy Birthday to John of John & Carole, TK, and Kelly from small group who celebrated birthdays recently. And a very Happy Birthday to SuAnn who should be celebrating today!

Thank you so much Janet & Frank, and Aunt Vivian, Zim, & Yim for your generous gifts. You are all so very thoughtful and sweet.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who have been flooding our mailbox with cards! We really appreciate your support.

And a super giant THANK YOU to Greg who is absolutely the best neighbor in the world. If there is such thing as a best neighbor award, he should get it. Greg, you have been so incredibly helpful, we appreciate it more than you'll ever know.