Post Stem Cell Transplant: Day +29

Today was a big day. Today Tami had her first visitors (aside from family) in quite some time. She was tired but glad to be able to have a short visit with some of her best friends.

Her hip was sore from the bone marrow biopsy draw but that should feel better in the next few days. It will also take several days to get the biopsy results back to find out how her engraftment is progressing.

And here's the really fantastic news: Her white blood counts are now within the safe range so her risk of general bacterial, viral or fungal infections is now low. In fact I think her counts are pretty phenomenal so soon after receiving her transplant. I can still recall being so worried when her platelet count was at 16 back in early May... And now she's already back up into a normal range.

White Blood Count - 6.85 (normal 4.0 - 11.0)
Red Blood Count - 3.59 (normal 3.8 - 5.2) this count was from 7/23. My mom was not able to locate a more recent RBC when I talked to her today.
Platelets 181 (normal 150-350)
Hematocrit- 34% (normal is 38% for women and 46% for men)

And as you can see Tami's hair is now gone. First she cut some off then when more fell out she went ahead and had the rest shaved. I think she looks super cute in her little skull cap. My mom said she has several hats that she can wear when she feels like it. It's just unfortunate that with Seattle's current 100+ degree heatwave hats are probably not as comfortable to wear the past few days if she goes outside into the heat.

Having seen this photo of Tami though I thought it would be nice to update her flirty illustration and as her hair grows back I'll reflect it by adding hair back to her illustration here :)

We'll keep you posted on when Tami will be up for more visits. The thing is even short visits wear her out right now but I was glad to hear she was able to visit with some friends. Nobody could ask for a better caretaker to be there with them each day then my mom but I'm sure it was nice for Tami to see some fresh faces. After all she's pretty much only seen my mom's face day in and out since late February. LOL :) I talked to my mom today and found out she has been reading books on her Kindle for iPhone app. while she spends time at the hospital each day with Tami and even reads her phone at night. She loves it! I thought it would be tedious to have to scroll, scroll, scroll so much but she doesn't mind at all. She said having the backlit screen makes it so easy to read :)