Day 7

Diarrhea is back and now worse. They are giving him Imodium to try to control it. He is experiencing a lot of stomach cramping also. To help with the pain from the stomach cramping they are giving him a small dose of Dilaudid through his IV.

His white blood cell count is down to 0.2 today. While he was eating his dinner tonight he would take a bite and take quite awhile to take the next. He said it wasn't because he was didn't want to eat it was because it seemed like so much work to eat. It looks like he is really starting to feel the affects of the low blood counts.

David, his brother and future stem cell donor, stopped in tonight for a visit.

I wanted to go back and comment on his lack of nausea from the chemo. He hardly had any nausea from the melphalan and I tend to believe that is because he was put into a case study for Emend. He has yet to turn down a meal or lose his appetite up to this point. I hope they start offering this as standard preventative maintenance for chemo patients.

Dad and David

Dad enjoying breakfast:D