Day 11

We are so sorry to hear about people affected by Oswald and the flooding and destruction left in its wake. We sincerely hope that you are still safe, and that damaged property can be fixed or easily replaced.

Visiting Shane has bought has been a challenge in itself! Getting there and back again was interesting. Last night Butterfield street and Gympie road were flooded, and power was cut to the car park. If you have been in this car park, you can only imagine how dark it is during a power outage, and how freaky the wind sounds in it! I only freaked out a little when trying to find my car!

Getting to Jenga's house on the other side of the flooded creek was another story! If I had go drive any longer, I would have just about gone past my house!

   This is above the Butterfield st entrance today. Flood waters have receded considerably since last night, but might pick back up again tomorrow when the flood peaks at mid-day.

As for Shane, he had quite a nice day today. He still isn't getting much sleep and he is still requiring oxygen to maintain his oxygen saturation, but generally he is doing really well. He had his last dose of Methotrexate for this protocol. Tomorrow will be his Folinic Acid rescue, and that will complete the protocol for his transplant. Then we just wait and continue managing his GVHD.

His bloods have continued progressing - WBCs were 0.8, and neuts were 0.3. A decent jump up from yesterday. The graft is obviously doing the right things, but we still want to ensure it doesn't do any tissue damage. Today's methotrexate will probably reduce his counts again over the next few days.

Shane's skin has improved considerably in some areas and changed (for better or worse I'm unsure) in other areas. He started on some steroid creams to assist his IV steroids.

Another considerable change today is Shane's liver function. As soon as I saw him this morning, I knew his liver function was funky. The whites of his eyes were yellow and bloodshot, a sure sign of liver issues. The Doctors have now changed his immunosuppressant from Cyclosporin to another drug similar, but easier on the liver and kidney's.

Shane's liver has been very sensitive to treatment right from the beginning. After his ICU stint, his liver function tests were so high they took weeks for them to return to normal. In fact, it only really returned to normal ranges the week he was admitted for his transplant. Talk about cutting it fine!

It really is an amazing balancing act of side effects, medications and treatments!

xx