Ginger writes…

Yesterday we had a checkup for Ian at CHOC in the morning.

watching baby einstein to pass the time

These appointments consist of a physical exam and bloodwork (which has to be done before he takes one of his morning medications, the cyclosporine, which is to prevent graft vs. host) and then after the appointment, we stay around close by to hear about the blood results, in case he needs any transfusions. Overall, they think he continues to do very well.

We received his second chimerism test results, which came back as 96% donor. The doctor we saw yesterday (Dr. Torno) said she would redraw the chimerism next week and probably check it every two weeks now. I asked if this was some thing they are concerned about, since I am not sure if a 4% drop is expected or concerning. She said it is such a small number that it may not be significant, 96% is still a high number but they just watch the number more closely whenever they see a drop.

playing with socks on his hands–he thought that was hilarious

The doctor also said that she will begin a wean of the cyclosporine next week, which also could mean that he could be getting off of the blood pressure medication (which treats the high blood pressure side effect of the cyclosporine).

ready to go home!

Ian’s red cell count was very low, so I was told to wait for the outpatient infusion center to call me with an appointment. When they called, they said the blood was still being prepared/processed, so to come at 2:30 or 3:00 pm. Unfortunately, when we got there, it still hadn’t been received, and took until 4:30 pm to arrive. The transfusion was scheduled to run three hours, so I was very glad that Wren was with Caid and Henry, since we didn’t get home until after 8.