Muddling Through

The transplant team is very happy with Tim's progress vis a vis the stem cell transplant. He has achieved engraftment (the stem cells have found a home and are working). They are changing him over to oral medication and are beginning to work on everything that needs to be in place to support him at home. This process can take a week or more, so don't take this news to mean that Tim is going home this week.

Unfotunately, the vasculitis is taking longer to resolve. While Tim is definitely alert and able to walk, talk, etc. he still exhibits signs of mental difficulties. For example, Tim can't work the television remote. He even tried to treat it like a telephone at one point. Just so you know, I have taken away his computer and his cell phone and don't leave the hospital room phone where he can easily get at it.

The doctors tell me that they have never seen anything like this before, so they can't predict what will happen. They said that we need to be patient and give the steroids time to decrease the swelling in the brain. They also said that progress will be slow and sometimes Tim may appear to be regressing. As long as the general trend is improvement, that is the best we can hope for at the moment. They hope to see decided improvement by the end of the week and will wait until then to make any changes unless he takes a decided turn for the worse again.

Thanks for the good wishes, cards, visits, gifts that have been sent our way. I apologize for not sending out individual thank yous, but I'm just mentally and physically exhausted.