Ellie Mae is working but she is not into full production. Gingerly she is making white cells and that is a big job. There are about 3 dozen or so kinds of white cells, so it is a big big job. Evidently EllieMay ( I am trying to figure out what spelling I like the best.) is concentrating her efforts on mostly Whites and we are very happy she continues to do so. When there are counts of 500 for three days in a row Mary-Elizabeth will be given the label of "engrafted". Right now she is "engrafting".
Since EM is working whites, there is a fair amount of ignoring of the platelets happening. That is okay in my view because platelets and reds can be ordered in, like Chinese food. The reds are more run of the mill Chinese: lomaine, sesame chicken, fried rice, dry sauteed green beans. Available on most street corners. Platelets on the other hand are foo goo. They are hard to come by, very short lived and can only be prepared one way lest they cause bad reactions.
Mary-E woke up yesterday to a bag ready to hang. She had dropped to 6000. So a unit when in. No problems. Around noon she woke up with purple hands. Not arms, but hands. Dark purple with darker purple life lines and creases. I called the nurse, who called the doctor. In came the nurse, in came the physicians assistant and then the doctor with the alligator purse... oops, I could not help myself.
They looked, they pondered, they exclaimed, NEW SIDE AFFECT and ordered some more platelets if her counts were low. An hour later the news of LESS THAN 5. I suggested we order two bags and was told it is not done. So we waited and around 4 new platelets started. More blood was drawn and she was 19. Good bump but since her transfusion number is 20, they ordered the second bag.
By 4 am this morning the hands were a lovely shade of lavender. She had had a dose of diuretic for each bag of platelets and they had worked. She felt so much better.
Today will be a day of sleep and quiet. I am barring the door. No one is coming in except the doctor with the alligator purse, the nurses. We had a glitter emergency last night so no need to clean the floor until this afternoon.
2 comments:
I favor the 'Mae' version. Glitter emergency sounds very promising.Purple hands, not so much. Go white cells, platelets, whatever we need to cheer on. Love, Roslyn
I too favor the "Mae" spelling. And congrats on spelling "oops" correctly...!!!!
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