Calcium is up again

Cael was having a few good days. He was eating very well (30 ounces yesterday!), his heart rate was down (120's while sleeping and 170's while awake, vs 150's and 200's), and his calcium was staying in the normal range (1.2 - normal is 1.1 - 1.3).  They stopped the extra fluids and the diuretics on Sunday, then yesterday he had his last calcitonin shot. He was a bit on the fussy side, but that could be all the other medicines he is on, like the adavent, zofran, benadryl, and the steroids.  It could also be that he has so much energy and not much of a way to use it.  He still isn't crawling or walking, and he is on a very short line (IV), so he can't go very far. We have been putting him in his jumper, and he just loves it! He bounces like crazy, especially when the music starts going.

Today, however, the doctor said his calcium has gone up again. It is at 1.36 yesterday. I'm not sure what it is this morning yet. When they tried to take his blood at 6:00, the couldn't get any. The vascular access team is going to look at it this morning. This isn't the first time that has happened. The doctors still don't know why the level was high, so I don't really understand how they expect the level to stay lower when they take him off all the medicines controlling it if they haven't done anything to correct the reason it was high in the first place.

The not so bad news about that is that this shouldn't affect the transplant. They originally wanted the calcium under control before going into transplant, but I guess since it is close to normal, and they know how to get it normal again, they will proceed with transplant. The A&I doctor said they would even go through transplant with him still getting the calcitonin shots, if need be.  It's just getting to the point that they don't want to put off the transplant any farther.

Of course, the transplant team may say something different that what we have been told so far.  For right now, we are still thinking he will start conditioning next week, then get the transplant a couple weeks later. We should be hearing from transplant doctors soon about what date they have set for the actual transplant.