ANC and monocytes

Cael has been doing ok so far today. It is encouraging to see that he really wants to drink. When I give him a bottle of pedialyte, he guzzles the 2 ounces down in just a couple minutes. He kept down the first 2 ounces, but then threw up the 2nd bottle I gave him. We will keep trying. Sooner or later he is bound to keep it down. I don't want to give him something I know is going to make him throw up, but since he kept some down this morning, I am hoping that trend will continue.

The good new of the day is that Cael's ANC is up to 30 cells/ microliter! They are looking for 500 cells/microliter for 3 days in a row to know that he has truly engrafted and his cells are multiplying. He also has 25% monocytes again, too. His white blood cell count has increased a little, up to 190 cells/ microliter.

In case I haven't explained it before, neutraphils and monocytes are both types of white blood cells that are responsible for fighting infections. That is why they are looking so closely at these two types of cells and how many of them he has. There is another type of blood test they can do that determines whether he has T cells, and if they are functioning. I don't know when they will do that test, but I haven't heard anything about it yet.

He has started to get the shakes lately. We especially notice it after he gets his breathing treatments. When he gets done, and we pick him up, his whole body seems to be trembling a little bit. I only realized it was happening a day or two ago, and I think he might do it at other times as well. The doctor thinks it could be from a number of the medications he is getting, and doesn't think it is necessarily the ribavirin. However, I still hate that stupid breathing treatment. Every morning, Cael has been waking up an hour into it and just cries and kicks for another hour until it is over. There is nothing we can do about it either. I hold him the best I can with him being in the box, but it usually doesn't really solve the problem. And there are no other medications known to help treat RSV and parainfluenza 3. So this is what we have to deal with. I'm sure it could be worse though, right?