Day +30
Journal entry by Ashley Millan —
The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy! Once Mike got home he was still extremely weak. He didn’t have much energy to carry a conversation or even keep his eyes open. His appetite was non existant and the biggest struggle was taking his medications (which is a lot) now that we have reached day +30 things have slowly gotten better for Mike. His appetite is coming back and he is able to sit up and talk for a little while. He still need a lot of rest and getting back to the way he was before transplant is definitely going to take some time.
As far as the transplant itself, his count are almost back into the normal ranges which is great! The only count that had doctors concerned was his bilirubin, it kept climbing each day. A high count in bilirubin means somethinng was going on with his liver. The doctors had an extensive scan done on his liver and surrounding areas to look and see what could be going on. Turns out it was graft vs host. The best analogy one of the nurses used is to describe graft vs host is like someone breaking into your home and invading your space. Initially the reaction is to fight off the one invading. In this case the graft was invading onto Mike’s liver and his body tried to fight back. The doctors quickly put Mike on steroids which tell his body to calm down and accept the graft to take over. After checking his counts today, his bilirubin is back down in the normal range.
This is a good sign because it means the graft took to his body! Another exciting bit of news we got yesterday was an update on his cirisums. Cirisums tell us what percentage of donor Mike is from zero to one hundred percent. Mike is already one hundred percent donor!!! Wonderful news!! The Doctors joke and told him now is the time to commit a crime, just be sure to leave blood and not hair haha. All because his DNA is now one hundred percent donor and not his own anymore.
Thank you everyone for texting to check on him and for the cards we continue to receive in the mail. It’s such an overwhelming amount of emotions knowing so many people care and spend the time to reach out and let us know about the continued prayers and sweet thought that are constantly sent our way.
I will update every Friday evening from now on!! Have a wonderful weekend
Mike's Journey 