Mom and Dad had their mission reunion on October 5th. The turnout was good and it was a fun event. Mom was exhausted by it though. So many people pitched in to make the party a success.
Sunday night after conference, we have a tradition of gathering together to share our feelings. We got together on Sunday, October 7th to do this. However, when we arrived at the house mom had been sleeping for 4 hours and dad could not wake her up. Her temperature was 105, her pulse was 120 bpm and she was unresponsive. It was determined that the best course of action was to call 911, give her a blessing and take her to the hospital. She has been their ever since.
Here is the problem. Mom is not producing white blood cells. Here are some stats. from last Friday.
- Mom’s White Blood Cell (WBC) count is still low .8 which = 800. She needs to be at a 5,000 – 10,000 before she can be released.
- Since this has not improved since her arrival last Sunday, they decided today to double her Neupogen dosage.
- Neupogen is the drug that is supposed to kick start the bone marrow production of WBC’s.
- She will get 600 cc’s per day vs. the previous 300.
- Neupogen’s side effects include nausea and this increased dosage will “make her bones ache.”
- Mom has not been eating well. She has been on a liquid / soft food diet and is undernourished because she hates to eat.
- They gave her a mild sedative and then put an NG (Naso-Gastric) feeding tube down her nose into her stomach to feed her.
- She has been told she will stay in the Hospital at least another 5 days, unless her WBC count miraculously improves before then.
- If it is still low in 5 days, the U of U Oncologists and Dr. Hafen (the Am-Fork Hospital Dr.) will have another consult and determine next steps.
- Bone marrow transplant surgery is not off the table so still a possible future option, but still a long way off in ways of treatments.
Sunday, mom’s WBC count was .9. This is still far too low but it is good news that it has moved up.
This has not been what we expected during mom’s break from koosh. Please pray for her and for dad.
The Christensen’s
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