White cells

...we've got some! This mornings blood work showed a white cell count of .16. If Piper has white cells and a ANC over 500 for 3 days in a row she is considered engrafted. Of course, more times than not the patient will kind of bounce along for a few days before consistently producing healthy cells.

Today was a long but good day. Piper was in good spirits and even participated in physical therapy for the better part of an hour. She has been fever free for over 24 hours now and we hope this trend continues. She's been given a steroid ointment for her entire body just to err on the side of caution regarding her rash. Because she is beginning the process of engraftment they are hopeful that it is only something called " engraftment rash" but there is always the high potential of graft vs host which is a whole different and dangerous ball game. Her antibiotics have been switched up some as well because she is having some severe pain when urinating. They think it is her urethra being inflamed which can cause burning since her urine is still clear and shows no sign of uti. Because of a very rough night last night Dr. Chiang has upped her overnight fentanyl dose...she will remain at the same dose during the day but hopefully this increase at night will give her some much needed rest and relief. I would not complain if I were to be able to sleep better either.

So here's to full engraftment, a good nights sleep and the perfect healing in every way for Miss Piper.