Changing Meds

We come into Stanford three times a week. They take labs, do x-rays, check skin etc. For the last few visits Andrew's labs have shown a decline in blood cell counts (red, white and platelets) which is not what you want to see. He received a couple of pints of red cells last Friday which made him feel a bit better. This week the medical team met to review and decided that Andrew had engrafted so well that it was not likely to be due to a failure of his graft so decided it was due to drug toxicity. His meds have been changed but because the immune system has taken such a hit it will be a few weeks before they expect to see the upward swing again. Andrew has also had some GI issues and thinks that is related to same meds so hopefully that will resolve itself with the change too. Even with this hiccup Andrew continues to do very well considering. A new doctor on rounds this week and he was astonished to hear that this is Andrew's second transplant. He thought he just looked too good for that to be the case. This guy is about our age and was a pretty keen tennis player before deciding he wasn't going to make it beyond the satellite circuit and went into medicine. He and Andrew had plenty to chat about. Girls have had exams all week so the candle has been burning in our house day and night. We are all looking forward to Friday (2 weeks vacation time). Very frosty here this morning when I decided to go for an early morning bike ride .... brrrrrr my toes are still cold. Early moring (5am) swimming just finished for the year and doesn't resume until January 3rd.  Thought I would mention the cold to our Aussie family and friends because I think they might be sweltering at the moment. Looks like free "morning tea" here at the Stanford Cancer Center for Xmas. Will have to go and check it out!