Nick’s doing pretty well. He had a bad first night, but keeping him on 2 anti-nausea meds around the clock seems to be helping. His blood pressure stabilized and his pulse rate came up overnight after the transplant, which is very good. I didn’t talk to my sister today, but when I talked to her yesterday Nick was up playing Wii in his room. He’s not eating, and they expect a rough few days with the mouth sores that will likely kick in soon. He’ll be on basal morphine for those, with ‘boosts’ from the pump available to him. He has an NG (nasogastric) tube for his TPN (total parenteral nutrition) feedings, I think. They don’t expect him to be eating by mouth for at least a while. And, it will be a bit before he can take in enough calories on his own so he’ll remain on NG feedings for a while even after he’s eating.
Because it takes a few weeks for the marrow to engraft and start producing cells, Nick will likely be at the hospital until late October at least. We’re all hoping and praying he’s released by Oct 21, his big brother Ted’s 11th birthday. In the meantime, he needs to rest up and get ready—my sister Chris and her family fly out from Chicago on Friday to visit! Hopefully Brent will also be home for the weekend, and we’ll have a ‘party’ visit to the hospital and spend some time together…if Nick’s up for us all. We will definitely miss Hailey (work) and Emily (in Pullman) while Chris, Frank, Alec, and Sam are here. :(
Feel free to check Nick’s Caring Bridge site for more updates!
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