Still Here

Last night I went home and got much needed sleep. You could probably tell by last nights blog that I pretty much was at my end. Nedra (Jim's sister) came to spend the evening with Jim. She ended up spending the entire night because he was pretty anxious. I came back this morning and since I have been here, he has been sleeping really well. He got one dialysis treatment yesterday and is getting it again today as well. He tolerates it ok but it wipes him out. The dialysis people told me that 1 dialysis treatment is comparable to running a 5 k. They are planning on another treatment as well tomorrow. Run Jim Run!

As far as the blood attacking itself goes, they are going to do plasma exchange everyday for 5 days and hope this fixes the problem. The plasma exchange uses the same machine he used when he harvested his bone marrow. It takes his blood out, cleans it up and then puts it back. Too bad they don't have one machine that will do the dialysis and plasma exchange at the same time. Wouldn't that be nice. So, he is getting his blood pulled out and put back in twice today. They are just finishing up his dialysis now and then the plasma exchange people come.

The pneumonia in his lungs seems to be ok. They are treating it with IV drugs and he gets breathing treatments. He pretty much just uses a nasal cannula or a tent mask. So, hopefully we are doing ok there.

Today, I AM THANKFUL for great kids who are hanging in there and taking care of each other. I called the other night to check on them and they had been swimming all day and were b-b-qing at 10:00 at night. I thought that was hysterical. Hey, if that's what helps them cope, it is cool with me.