The pain of success

Colleen had a 99 fever yesterday evening, but it resolved and the nurse said she was normal temp in the night, but jumped to 99.9 at 5 AM. She slept on the couch for the night. She wanted neither her bed nor the chair bed.

Since I usually sleep on the couch, I think that she wanted that place for the night, thinking I'd be there too. She protested a bit when I moved off the couch and to the chair bed, but she got comfortable and slept well, and only woke once in the night. I covered her with her quilt and she immediately went back to sleep. I think she was checking for mom.

She looks to be DEFINATELY engrafting. Her body is chewing up the platelets they give her. She is down to 21 today, which is THREE days in a row she needs a platelet transfusion. Her hemoglobin is also down to 9.3 and she will get blood today too (under 10 she needs blood).

She ate NOTHING yesterday, very few sips of chocolate milk too. Loss of apetite is common during engraftment, as are mouth sores and sores throughout the digestive track. The nurse this morning says she should probably not be discharged this weekend, given the development of fever yesterday and this morning along with the fact she has stopped eating. These could also be signs of Graft vs. Host disease.
Susan