Saturday July 25, 09
Val 's blood was drawn twice yesterday, once in the morning out of her arm, and then because the blood levels weren't so good again in the evening out of her infusaport in her chest. The evening draw out of the of chest port was to check that site specifically for an infection there. Val's WBC count is up to 15,000 (normal is 4-10,000). She has an infection somewhere, but now the hard part is finding it. So a urine sample was taken also. The nurse Mary thinks Val has a thrush like infection in her mouth as her tongue is coated with a white layer. Mary brought Val some special swabs to help this problem.

Val's RBC count is down from 9.2 to 8.7. Her platelets are down t 44 from 60 so Dad has to stop her coumadin for now. The miralax keeps her bowels going daily. The fentanly patch remains at 100mg with one or two vicoden daily to supplement so her pain is well controlled.

Val is veeerrry tired. She refused to take the shower yesterday which would adhere to the every other day schedule, but Dad was able to coax her today. She is eating almost nothing.... a few sips of soup for breakfast, a half a white bread sandwich of 4 small squares of mayo and tomato, and 1/2 half a peach and some blue berries for dinner. This is with much reluctance and much coaxing on Dad's part. Despite her weakness, she is still walking downstairs to spend the day in her hospital bed, visit with her parents downstairs, but return to her bedroom upstairs to sleep a night.

Love and prayers to Val always...Salynn