Thursday, December 4, 2008

Day +132: Small Improvements

Sarah did not sleep soundly last night. Her oxygen saturation was low during the night so Susan and I sort of half slept/half watched Sarah. We were helping to keep an external oxygen supply near her face to keep her saturation level up. I was pretty tired today, but not as much as Sarah.

She has been very tired today. Her red blood cell count was low and the doctors planned to give her a transfusion, but they wanted to see the results of an EKG and Echocardiogram also scheduled today first.

There was concern that the low saturation level was due to difficulty with Sarah's heart. The EKG and Echocardiogram turned out clean and her heart function is normal. The blood transfusion is finishing up right now.

Sarah 's oxygen saturation level returned to normal, her elevated pulse dropped to normal and her shallow breathing appeared normal immediately after the red blood cell transfusion began.

Sarah's white blood cell count had been rising very rapidly (doubling in just one day) over the last several days, but did not rise at all over the last 24 hours. It could be the chemotherapy is beginning to work, but it's a little soon to tell.

The Dasatinib will arrive from California tomorrow to begin that part of Sarah's treatment.

I do not know if these improvements will hold, but we are very grateful for them. We remain hopeful that God will allow Sarah to remain with us.
-Ben

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Susan and Ben,
We are praying fervently for Sarah's complete healing.
Thank you for the updates, it really helps to know what specifically to pray for.
Love, Lynn {{{{{ H U G S }}}}}