Tom is currently having another transfusion (red blood and platelets). His hemoglobin (assumed to be 7.6 when he left the hospital on Thursday, though post-transfusion blood counts aren't taken because they are considered fairly innacurate) was 7.6. Today it was 7.3. That means that in four days he made few red blood. His platelets were at 15. This is fairly typical for this point in the week.
Today we saw Dr. Mena, who performed Tom's bone marrow extraction in October and is in the same medical group with Dr. Olsen. His blood was drawn and analyzed at the office. Dr. Mena needed to order the transfusions so Tom was not able to see Dr. Olsen when the doctor arrived in the afternoon.
A new bone marrow extraction is expected to be ordered tomorrow. A bone marrow transplant will also be discussed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow_transplant), likely once the results of the extraction are in.
Tom's thin right now, just about 140 lbs. He did shave this weekend and we were all happy to see his face again. His cold is improving, only a hacking cough remains. He began to feel weak again today. The transfusion should assist with this.
Tom will complete the antibiotic prescribed to him by Dr. Ski at Marion Hospital (in Santa Maria) tomorrow. However, he is not likely to need to continue the strict neutropenic (low-bacteria-risk) diet (http://www.upmc.com/HealthAtoZ/patienteducation/Documents/NeutropenicDiet.pdf) that was prescribed at Marion, as an auto-immune disorder has not been identified.
We will see his doctor tomorrow at 11:30 AM. Thank you all for your calls, texts, emails, etc. We really appreciate every one.
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