John doesn't need blood transfusions right now!

I forgot to tell you all how John was doing.  

He got his lab results back yesterday. 

First let me say that a couple of weeks ago, he got a shot of Aranesp to help raise his red blood cell count (his hemoglobin and hematocrit).  The shot was to make sure he wouldn't need any blood transfusions any time soon.  

Well, his scores came back great yesterday!  The Aranesp shot raised his red blood cell count!  What this means is, that for now, he won't be needing blood transfusions!  Not right now anyway!  Yayyyyyy!  I hope this trend continues!  I just wanted to let you all know!  Those transfusions that he used to have to get (over 100 of them) used to  take a big toll on him.     

Everything else is going pretty well with John also.  He's not in the normal range of things yet, but for him, he is doing very well! 

I won't bore you with a full medical report, but we are very pleased, that John is doing as well as he is, for being a person who has some health issues.  He does most everything a "normal healthy" person does, LOL.  Except he has to sleep more.

Oh, one more thing, I don't know if I mentioned he goes to Physical Therapy three times a week for his neck.  At a different therapy place than me.  Now why did he choose to go somewhere different?  I haven't the foggyist.  Now working out a schedule will be much harder, LOL!

Okay, I just wanted you all to know he is okay and doesn't need blood.  And this he is trying to get through the injury on his neck by working in physical therapy three times a week.  Probably for two or three months.  He will make it though!  Thanks for the emails asking about him. :)

*****By the way, if you are a new reader, and don't understand this entry too much, John got a bone marrow transplant (stem cell transplant) a little over two years ago.  He needed the bone marrow transplant because he had twocancers:  Non Hodgkins Lympyoma, and MDS ( bone marrow cancer).  MDS can turn into AML (leukemia) in a few short months if left untreated, so if John hadn't chosen to do the bone marrow transplant he would have, well, passed away by now, must likely.  So all things considered, he is doing quite well.  

Well, getting back to John needing frequent blood transfusions at different times since the transplant, he had/has a disease called Hemolytic Anemia.  Hemolytic Anemia is when your blood cells can destruct in as fast as a day.  That is why the person who has an advanced case of Hemolytic Anemia needs constant blood transfusions. 

Now if you are wondering how John got the Hemolytic Anemia (that has caused him to get over 100 transfusions so far in 2 years), his oncologists don't even know.

But the oncologists do have two theories.  The first is John could be having an adverse reaction to a medication he took after the bone marrow transplant.  This medication was one that causes John's body from rejecting his donor - and was quite necessary perhaps!

The other thing that could have caused the Hemalytic Anemia, therefore causing John to need so many transfusions, was a mismatched bag of blood.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Sometimes if the recipient of the blood is not matched correctly with the right type of blood this can happen.  I don't know who messed up, the blood bank or the nurse or who.  Tell you what.  We are not even going to think about it.  We thought all along it was the meds and now we find out it might be mis matched blood.  What a nightmare, Ughhhh.

We are still VERY much into receiving and giving blood of course.  Without those hundreds of bags of blood that John received, he was saved from death.  And for all of you who donated blood, many were saved from death also.  Thank you so much!!!! :)       

Okay, so I am going to go to Chinese with John now!    

Love you all, and take care of yourself,

Krissy :)

Tags: Aranesp, blood transfusion, red blood cell pack, hemoglobin, hematocrit, physical therapy, blogplugs