D+4

It was my turn on the nightshift again last night, so Im trying to update when I come back to our room.

We are now on D+4. We had some disappointing news the day after transplant day in that they could not get the amount of cells they would like from the Donor - it seems that he just couldn't donate anymore marrow than he did. This came as a devastating blow initially as we thought that meant failure. However it was explained to us that this is not the case and that it will just take longer to engraft. Also that they could have got double the number of cells and its no guarantee of engraftment - there is no set pattern so we are back to watching and waiting and hoping.

Oliver has had a couple of days vomiting on and off and has some discolouration of his skin around his groin - both to be expected, although the sickness is distressing, Im trying to think of it that he has a bad tummy bug and just waiting for they symptoms to subside.

He had a good night last night considering all the comings and goings with his observations, milk feeds, IV fluids, anti viral, anti rejection plus the oral meds he is having down his NG Tube. He fell asleep around 9.30pm and woke with griping pains in his tummy, turns out it was a massive attack of wind. I changed him around 1am and then he asked for me to get in bed with him. Not passing up the chance of a cuddle, I obliged and he slept through till 7am this morning when Dave arrived.

The drugs regimen seems relentless, 1 hour infusion of Aciclovir @ 6am followed by a half hour flush, then 2 hour infusion of Cyclosporin and a half hour flush. These are given 3 times a day so he is hooked up nearly constantly bless him. He also has lots of oral meds via his NG Tube.

He has only had platelets so far and he seems to be holding onto the ones hes being transfused which would indicate that he has not got any anti platelet antibodys which is great.

He would receive red blood if his haemoglobin goes below 8 and platelets if his platelet count goes below 30K. Given that we are used to him running a platelet count of less than 10 this is a bonus for us.

He hates the hospital food and Ive got to say I don't blame him so now we are used to what he can and can't have we are getting our own in which we are hoping will help him to maintain his nutrition and in turn his weight. The dietician is coming today so we can discuss options with her.

So, we will see what today brings- signing off for now