voting is for the 4-24 entry

Oh... I hate to post after yesterday's entry! I feel like I'm breaking up a party. But you can still vote. (frank thinks that's cool)

We had fun with it last night. Frank was laughing at himself. He got so tickled! The kids kept saying, "you sound just like grandaddy when you laugh hard like that."

We've been at the hospital almost every day for blood for 2 weeks. Here's what we know....

The platelet count keeps dropping after the transfusions. That seemed weird. His platelets were 17, he got a bag, but they dropped to 13. So he got another bag and today they were 9. They said he's building up a resistance to the platelets. (He also was making antibodies to the whole blood too) So from now on he'll need to get a "single donor bag". I thought that meant the same person had to donate every time he needs platelets, but I was wrong. They said some bags of platelets are full of cells from several different donors. He needs a bag that only has one persons cells in it. That made sense. He got his single donor bag today.

His platelets were 9 this morning, but 50 an hour after the transfusion. Yeah!!

We're praying they are just that high or higher tomorrow, but if he rejects this bag, they could be below 20 tomorrow. So we need to get some lab drawn over the weekend. There is no place to do that in Memphis. We are getting up and driving to Little Rock to have his labs drawn, and get some blood if he needs it. Then we're coming home hopefully in time to celebrate Nana and Jim's birthdays.

If we need to, we'll do the same thing Sunday. But we're hoping he's on his way up, up, up! His white count went from 0.1 to 0.3 to 0.5 so things look like they're headed in that direction.

The most wonderful news of all is that all the cancer markers and lab values are low and look really good! This is working! Praise the Lord!!

Please pray he remains free from infection while his white count is under 2.0. We are so thankful that with all the blood products he's needed that him being sick hasn't been an issue.

Thanks too for keeping us with us and for praying so faithfully for our family. If you're website shy, you can send him an email. He loves hearing from people and it really does make him feel better.

Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.