The 4th floor is busy today, most of the rooms are occupied. The herd of docs, residents, and others didn't make it to our room until 12:30. Kristi's liver functions are normal again (at least within normal range). The issue was with the amount of Bilirubin in her blood. Her hematocrit is around 22 today, not quite low enough to trigger a transfusion, but she's getting one anyway. They think that the little headaches she's been having are because she's low. Her platelets are also dropping. This hasn't been part of her transfusions thus far. Tomorrow, she will get the platelet transfusion. Whenever she gets blood, you can tell the difference right away. Specifically, her cheeks get all rosy. The (noisy) image below shows this. It took a few tries to get it to show up like it does in person.
Today is day five of chemotherapy. The only thing on the menu now is Ara-C. There will be two more days of this. By Saturday, she will be done. However, the effects won't be maximized for about seven more days. They expect her white blood cell count to bottom out around day 14 (from the start of chemo). She will still be stuck to the octopus during this time, mostly for antibiotic drips. Her immunities will be completely artificial. The Docs have an arsenal of antibiotics and antifungals ready and waiting.
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