Here is the news: Blood counts are lower right now than they were two weeks ago which is not good. Higher than normal levels of blasts (immature blood cells) are in Dad's bone marrow and that is not good. The level of chemotherapy has been upgraded to be more aggressive because of these developments. The fevers he has been experiencing are probably just being caused by the MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome) so chemo will be started today. Bilirubin count is up so he is yellowish. He gained 12 pounds of water weight so an MRI has to be done today to see why he's retaining water. He was given extra blood yesterday (he doesn't make enough blood due to his syndrome). Dad's appetite is low. Doctors say he could be in the hospital for 1 more week or perhaps 4 more weeks.....they just don't know. He is in good spirits. He was out of bed today taking little walks.
In other news: Dad/Jeff loves all of you very much BUT phone calls wear him out because everyone wants to know everything. It will be hard for Dad to have visitors when chemo starts because he will be extremely tired and his immune system will be out of commission. To share your thoughts, just leave a message on here or email me at rizzo_roo@yahoo.com, I'll print out your comments and they will be delivered to him. If you would like to help, in an indirect way, go donate blood at a blood bank because Dad has received a lot of extra blood and they always need more.
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