"A Lot Of Fight Left..." - John Buskirk

John, Dwight and Sue Bowdens & Jessica

John is still very exhausted; emotionally and physically. He slept all day yesterday. He tried to stay awake most of the day today. It was great to see him awake and talking, but he was very tired. He kept fighting trying not to go to sleep. He had a rough early morning vomiting and diarrhea. His white blood cells are actually going down instead of coming up. The doctor decided to give something called Neupogen. It is a white blood cell booster. They questioned this because they don't want to stimulate leukemia cells if they are hiding out in his bone marrow. So we will see what this does. It usually takes about a week or so for it to work. It is to early to do another bone marrow biopsy because of his counts being so low. It wouldn't show anything; it would be a waste to put him through that.

He actually ate a little more today for lunch. He just doesn't have an appetite at all. He is drinking plenty of fluids though and they have added some lasix to help in getting rid of the excess fluids he is carrying. They have started to taper down the steroids. He is now at 60 mg. His skin is looking so much better his legs are still blistering, weeping fluid and are still very swollen. Cardiology is still following him and doing EKG's and echo cardiograms every few days. They were in today and said his heart is functioning very well at this point it's just the fluid that is still there; but he has no issues with a fib for awhile. His hickman is holding up very well so far.

He had a few visitors come while he was awake today. The Bowdens (Dwight and Sue) who are in the picture above. They are very close friends of ours. The McGruders (Gru and Steph) also very good friends of ours. He was very happy he was awake to see them all. He is still having a very hard time staying awake.

He says hello to you all and that he still has a lot of fight left; he says "I'm just getting my ass kicked a little right now". Talk to you all soon.