Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Day +33 - the good, the bad, and the ugly

The good...
So we're at Day +33 today and Gracie's counts are looking awesome! Her WBC is 5.6 and her Neutrophils are at 3.7. Fantastic numbers!!! She's been consistently good... so much so that Jimmy and I have a meeting today with the Nurse Coordinator for our discharge instructions. Woot!!!

The bad...
Last night Gracie spiked a tiny fever of 100.5 which will in turn delay our discharge for 48 hours while we wait to see if she has an infection. At best, we could be discharged on Friday... but if it doesn't work out then, we'll wait until Monday so that Mommy doesn't have to try to move out of the hospital by herself after accumulating almost 2 months worth of stuff. Yikes.

The ugly...
Gracie's rash is looking more and more icky. The dermatologist just came in and said that it doesn't look at all like GVHD or a drug rash which were our buggest concerns. His opinion is that it looks to him like eczema. The funny thing is that eczema is usually family related, but neither Jimmy or I have family histories of eczema at all. However, our donor could possibly have a history of it in her family... and now that Gracie is fully engrafted with donor cells, it is much more likely that any issues of this nature would come from them, not us. Interesting, isn't it?

Also in the ugly category is that we learned today that Gracie has a virus. This is particularly disturbing news when we are talking about an immune compromised baby. The virus she has is HHV6 which is the virus that causes Roseola in children. Gracie has only a tiny level of this virus in her body, and the doctors are not concerned about it at all. They expect that her awesome WBC's will find that piddly little virus and take care of it. :) Luckily, it will not delay our discharge any further.

So, pray for no more fevers and relief from our itchy skin problem. Hopefully we'll be back at the RMH before our Daddy goes home. Here's hoping he's our good luck charm. :)

xoxo.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well, and you guys can go home soon!!! Keeping you in my thoughts always :)

petrichor said...

ugh....I have eczema too though no one else in my family does...but who knows? maybe you guys have the genes for it but nothing environmental ever triggered it in you because your immune systems were healthy?? hope the roseola clears up quickly and you guys can get out of there and on with life!

Humblepie said...

My mom has eczema. How far down the family line can it run to affect Gracie? Hmmmm.....i wonder? We will pray for her quick recovery from this icky virus & that you guys will be home very soon! God bless you my sweet cousin! Love, Kelli :)

Anonymous said...

C'mon Gracie Girl...you can do this!! Send your warriors out to whip that fever.
I hope you all can get out of the hospital SOON and one step closer to home.
You are all always in my prayers.