Aug. 17 Day +32

Mark 1:35 says, " And in the early morning, while it was still dark, he arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there." This scripture shows us how important prayer was to Jesus that he would arise early and go to a lonely place to talk with His Father. If it was that important for Him, how much more should it be for us to talk to our Heavenly Father too.

It was a long day for us today. We decided to take the car today because it looked like rain and it's a good thing we did. It started raining before we got out of the garage and was raining when we got back home. There was a real "gully washer" after we got into the apartment and it's still raining.

We got to the Lab about 9 and they were able to get the blood work done by 9:30. They had a little trouble but were able to get all 3 flushed. We got to the Bone Marrow Biopsy room about 9:50 and Becky decided she wanted Versed (the doctor called it an amnesia drug) so the procedure wouldn't hurt as bad. They finally got started about 10:10. Becky was awake and talked to him during the procedure but, true to it's purpose, she doesn't remember anything about it.

Her next appointment was at 11:15 and it was a good thing we had the wheelchair because she was pretty groggy and needed the help. We finally got in a room to see the doctor about 12:00. We saw the nurse about 12:15 and then he finally came in about 12:45. Becky was telling him that when she got back from the bathroom she had a chill and he jumped right on that and said her departure from the hospital was going to be delayed. He did say that her labs are better with the platelets now at 162 and normal is above 140. Everything else was good on the CBC but the Creatinine was up which is an indicator of kidney function and hydration. Also her blood pressure remained elevated at 151/90.

The doctor decided to decrease her CellCept (antirejection drug) from 2 twice a day to 1 twice a day and the Tacrolimus from 1mg in am and 0.5mg in PM to 0.5mg in AM and PM . He is also going to start her on a blood pressure medication that hopefully will help with the tremors too. They didn't have it in the pharmacy but I'll go pick it up in the morning. She will go back for bloodwork and see the Nurse Practitioner on Friday afternoon.

Since she was having the chills, he sent her over for blood cultures to be run. The nurse wasn't thrilled to see her returning because she has so much trouble getting blood. The cultures had to be done from the port catheter as well as her arm today. The nurse said she was off Friday and Monday and Sept. 11 if Becky could schedule her labs for those days. She was just teasing, we think. After the blood cultures she had to go to have a dose of IV antibiotics. We finally got home about 3:25.

She is thoroughly exhausted this evening. We came home and I fixed "lupper" and we both ate like we were starved, which we were! I think we are going to rest this evening and do nothing.

Thank you for your prayers. All in all she got a good report today.

Love,
Becky and Barb