Steven's Progress of Treatment for Leukemia2002Link to 2001 Progress, Pre-UAB |
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Date |
Event |
Platelet Count |
Hospital |
MCC |
UAB |
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Day +95Steven passed away quietly today at 3:50 PM. His family was present along with several of the BMT staff members including Dr. Salzman (who told Steven that he "could let go now, no more pain, go to the light."), Steven's favorite nurse, Gina, Rhonda (Steven's nurse practitioner), Janet (our patient coordinator), and his pool nurse today (who was comforting), Janet. So many people here told us that they had fallen completely in love with Steven because of his personality, incredible strength, willpower, and stamina to overcome so many problems, consideration to others, and he never complained through all of this. Steven did everything he was told to do, many patients don't, and the doctors and nurses did everything they could to try to heal him. Most patients don't survive one alveolar hemorrhaging (lungs bleeding) but Steven survived many recurrences and he strived to live. He told me early on "I don't want to die, I have too much to live for." Steven left a mark here at UAB, a legacy that will never be forgotten. He will stay in our hearts and minds forever. I have been so blessed to have had Steven in my life and to truly know him. We will miss Steven terribly.We didn't mention last week that the other 20 year old on the unit, Emily Woodruff, who had a BMT because of her AML disease, passed away on March 19th. She was born 6 days before Steven and died 6 days before him. I will stay in touch with her dear mother, Marybeth, since we have so much in common.We will keep Steven's website online so that others can learn from it and from the other cancer sites that are linked to this one. Please feel free to continue to post messages to the message board. If there are computers in heaven Steven surely has one.We will post the beautiful BMT donor letters to the website in the next few days, one is from Steven's donor and one is to his donor. They will touch your heart, please read them.
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Day +94
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X
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Day +93Steven had a good night’s rest, because he was on sedation. Shortly after
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29,400
WBC
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X
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Day +92Steven had his vascath surgery at 9 this morning but it didn't work out because the vein in his right leg, where he had one of these placed before, had scarring. The doctor decided to try to place it in his left leg later today and that surgery turned out well. Steven was heavily sedated all day and tonight. |
37,800 |
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X |
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Day +91Steven didn't eat or drink much today; he seemed depressed. Tomorrow he will undergo an in-room surgery to place a vascath into his upper thigh for the hook up to the GVVHD dialysis machine. The one currently in his shoulder isn't working right anymore because it started clotting. Steven was given more sedation so that he could rest for the procedure tomorrow, his oxygen level is set at 80%. WBC is 2.17.
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43,100 |
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X |
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Day +90Steven had a fair day today. He ate a little breakfast this morning and went onto the Internet before lunch to read all of your postings on his website http://reddlegg.dns2go.com/Leukemia/discussion2/default.htm He also talked with some of his friends on his computer. He ate some hot and sour soup from a local Chinese restaurant and part of a Frosty from Wendy's. They had to raise his oxygen a little this afternoon. Please keep us and all of the transplant families in your prayers. Steven and the others are going through things that no one could ever imagine. Our postings to the website can't express the physical, psychological, or the emotional roller coaster that the family and patients go through. Again, keep us in your prayers and thank you for following along with Steven's progress.
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52,500 |
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X |
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Day +89Well, today was better than yesterday. Thank God John is here with us through the weekend and beyond; John is part of our strength and hope. I slept late this morning while John was mother hen to Steven, (and Gina, fantastic nurse that she is, cares for him through Thursday) we have Steven approved to eat a soft food diet so, he had a yogurt, tea, and juice for breakfast. Last night and, in fact, all day yesterday Steven wasn't scheduled to have anything to eat unless someone put him down for a tube feeding of traumacal (yuck). I gave him some applesauce and part of a Frosty from Wendys last night because I'm certainly not going let him starve to death. Today we went to one of the Purple Onion restaurants (Greek chain of restaurants in Birmingham) for Steven's lunch because he wanted some hummus (they spell it hommos on the menu) which is mashed chick peas with sesame paste and garlic; it's a dip served with pita bread. He also has Boost, a liquid shake, McDonald's shakes and whatever he wants that is mushy. The nutritionist came by this afternoon and ordered a pureed diet for Steven. His PEEP is at level 12, oxygen was at 70% but was raised to 75% based on his ABG late tonight and WBC count, this morning, was at 2.06. Steven wanted to go on his laptop this afternoon, good sign, and I caught sight of him checking out his message postings on the internet. Thank you to everyone who posts! Steven constantly amazes everyone who cares for him, he is an exceptional patient, and top priority to the staff of UAB and, of course, to me! How he keeps his sense of humor and stamina I have no idea; but everyone here loves Steven.
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65,600 |
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X |
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Day +88Early this morning I was called to the hospital by Steven's nurse; he was having trouble breathing, his oxygen level was raised to 100%, and, she said, he asked for me to be called. We had a very difficult morning, Steven had to go from pressure support (breathing on his own on the vent) to assist support (when the vent controls the breathing). Steven was fighting the vent, breathing out when it was trying to give him a breath, so he had to be heavily sedated to relax him. He's built up such a tolerance for the sedative drugs though that he wasn't sedated for very long even though one of the sedation drugs was replaced with a different one he hasn't had before (propofol). Also, his steroid dosage was doubled and steroids make you wide awake in addition to increasing appetite. It took all morning to get Steven sedated and stabilized. He is retaining more fluid again and the dialysis doctor's are increasing the fluid removal rate on the CVVHD machine. After a nap this afternoon Steven was awake again and not very pleased to hear that he would not get to eat and would have to have another NG tube in his nose for medicines. We explained what was going on: that the doctor wanted him to rest under sedation for a day or two so that he would not fight the vent, and could recover from the recent bleeding and setbacks. He wrote "here we go again" on his notepad. By late this afternoon Steven was improved enough to have his oxygen level lowered to 70%. WBC - 3.17. |
80,200 |
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X |
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Day +87Steven's oxygen was raised to 70% early this morning. We had a bit of a rough night with some coughing up of blood last night. Today has been better though. WBC - 4.73.Late night update: Steven's oxygen was lowered to 65%.
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58,400 |
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X |
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Day +86Steven is sleeping most of the time, the medications are making him drowsy. Dr. Vaughan put Steven on a regular meal diet today, he is enjoying his meals when he is awake. We cut his food up into small pieces so that he can eat it while on the vent. WBC - 3.10. |
46,400 |
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X |
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Day +85Not much is new today, Steven's levels on the vent are the same as yesterday. He is being given 125 milligram doses of steroids every 6 hours now. There is currently a platelet shortage at the hospital (please consider becoming a platelet donor). Steven, along with many other patients, requires a lot of platelets along with blood still. WBC today is 3.79.
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59,600 |
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X |
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Day +84Steven's vent levels were adjusted today; he is on pressure support set at 12, PEEP is at 7, and his oxygen is 70%. Since Steven can swallow liquid while on the vent and it's much more enjoyable that having a tube taped to your nose with no taste in your mouth, we got the ok to have the blasted NG tube removed and the liquid diet continued. Amen. Steven's blood pressure has been high for awhile now so, he is on blood pressure medication as well as the insulin drip for his high glucose from the other medicines. The BMT doctors had one of their meetings today and I heard that Dr. Salzman agreed with me on something; Monday I was very concerned about Steven's bloody secretions and expressed this to the doctors saying they should increase rather than decrease the steroid dosage because I was afraid he was actively bleeding again. That's what Dr. Salzman did when Steven had his last episode and, thanks to her suggestion at this meeting, that's what they did again today. This afternoon's steroid dose was doubled. It bothers me that this setback might have been prevented. We understand the damage that can be done by the steroids but we have to weigh the options and, to Steven, death is not an option. He has an incredible will to live and as long as he has this desire I am going to pitch a fit, if need be, to make sure that he has the best chance to survive. WBC today is 3.21.
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36.900 |
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X |
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Day +83I stayed up all night, had a nap this afternoon, and was grateful (as was Steven) that I was there when he needed me again last night. We had another terrifying episode of Steven feeling as though he were drowning in blood and not being able to breathe. It makes us so angry, feeling helpless with no answers, after coming so far and so close to getting Steven off of all the machines. After last night's setback of Steven's lungs bleeding again and his return to the vent, he had to have yet another feeding tube inserted in his nose. Steven's progress was halted again, he has not had a successful recovery as some may think, he has encountered many complications and we are at a loss. This morning an art line (arterial line like an iv) was sewed into his right wrist so that Steven's abg (arterial blood gas samples-to see if he is getting enough oxygen) could be drawn without sticking a needle into that site continuously. Steven's platelets and WBC - 5.07 are higher today because of all the transfusions he had to have to overcome the hemorrhaging last night. Steven is on 70% oxygen, pressure support of 10, and PEEP at 5. Please post positive messages to Steven.Emily Woodruff, the other 20 year old on the BMT unit, has suffered a stroke, is paralyzed on one side of her body and is now also on a ventilator. Please keep Emily and Steven in your daily prayers. This is so difficult for all of us.
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45,000 |
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X |
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Day +82Today marks 3 months since Steven was admitted to the BMT Unit at UAB and it's been 7 months since he was diagnosed with leukemia. What a roller coaster ride this has been and what a day we had again today, it's never an "ordinary day."The "swallow test" was performed this morning; there is just one young lady who does this at the hospital. This test involves a cup of ice and some blue dye. The blue dye goes in the ice, Steven eats a piece of the ice and then, drinks some of the mix and his mouth turns Smurf blue. Then they suction Steven's lungs and see if anything comes out blue to tell whether or not he is aspirating any of the liquid; to make sure it goes in the stomach and not the lungs. Steven passed the test and, after approval by the doctor., a liquid diet was ordered. She also let the air out of the cuff in Steven's throat so we could see if he could talk when she held a finger over his tracheostomy site. And he could so, a "speaking valve" was ordered (a little cap that goes over the trach allows the patient to speak, in their normal voice, when the air is out of their cuff). A 23 year old quadriplegic college student, David Muir, invented this device for himself in 1990, I think it was, because he was depressed that he couldn't speak while dependent on the vent (the power of the voice!). It was great to hear Steven's voice; he had juice, soup, and ice cream for lunch. I got him a fruit smoothie, like a slurpee, this afternoon. The NG (nasal feeding tube) was removed and tomorrow Steven may get to eat more solid food. I've been waiting for 6 and a half weeks for Steven to be able to drink so I could go get him a Jamocha shake and what a pleasure it was to do that this evening and see him enjoy some of it! The down side of this day was that there is still blood in Steven's secretions and we pray that this clears up. There is no sure cure. WBC - 2.78Late night update: Steven was coughing up much more blood tonight and is requiring more platelets and blood transfusions.Early morning update: Steven has had more bleeding in his lungs and had to be put back on the vent so that he could breathe and rest. This has been a very tough night.
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31,300 |
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X |
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Day +81This morning Steven's pressure support was lowered to 2, his PEEP lowered to 2, and his oxygen set at 30%. He had a small amount of blood in the secretions that were suctioned out of him last night and this morning so, the doctor is keeping his steroids at the level they are now which is two 60 milligram doses and one 40 mil. dose per day. It took most of the day to get a sample of arterial blood from Steven to test his blood gases because it has to be taken from an artery in his wrist but his wrists and arms are black and blue and swollen from having the blood gases tested daily. Every sample turned out to be veinous rather than arterial; Steven was mad at having to be stuck continually (it's so painful) and I was in tears. The nurses gave up because they didn't want to hurt Steven anymore and told the doctor that if he wanted a sample he would have to get it himself; he did and it was decided that Steven's oxygenation was well enough to take him off of the vent at 4:20 pm. An oxygen circuit was attached to Steven's trache site with 40% oxygen and Steven was at 100% saturation soon after that, better than his levels on the vent. This is very good, the next step is to have a swallow test done tomorrow. If that goes well Steven can have something to drink. WBC - 2.92
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27,500 |
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X |
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Day +80Today Steven's pressure support was lowered to 4, his PEEP is at 3, and his oxygen is at 35%. Dr. Vaughan was very pleased with the progress.
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28,900 |
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X |
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Day +79Since last night Steven's pressure support on the vent has been lowered to 6, his PEEP level to 3, and his oxygen to 40%. His saturation levels have been good and these changes have been very smooth and gradual. If Steven keeps up this great progress he will be off the vent early this coming week.
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30,600 |
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X |
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Day +78Dr. Vaughan lowered Steven's pressure support from 10 (yesterday's level) to 8 this morning and, this afternoon, his PEEP was lowered from 5 to 4. His steroid dose was 60 milligrams 3 times a day up until today when it was lowered to 2 60 mil.'s and 1 40 mil. Steven has made good progress the last couple of weeks. His WBC is 5.42 (that is, 5,420 abbreviated). A normal white blood cell count is 4,000-11,000 and a normal platelet count is 150,000-400,000.This week he has finally enjoyed some of the Dum Dum lollipops that we got him for his birthday last month (after I talked him into it). He can rinse his mouth out afterwards, there is a suction tube he can use, and his nurse practitioner said it's okay. It's good to have some flavor of something. The nurses say that he should be a poster person of mouth care management still. Imagine not eating, drinking, or talking for a month and a half; bless his heart. I can't wait to get him a milkshake that he can taste, and real food!
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31,500 |
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X |
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Day +77This morning Dr. Vaughan changed Steven's setting to pressure support ventilation. This is good, Steven is still on the vent but breathing on his own (with PEEP and 40% oxygen) the pressure helps to lift the aveolar in his lungs. He's also receiving platelets every 12 hours now rather than every 8 hours. Steven is my hero too! WBC is 5.09.
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41,000 |
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X |
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Day +76Not much to report today; Steven slept a lot and, this morning, he had some bleeding around the outer area of his tracheostomy. Dr. Vaughan said that Steven's breathing pattern is the way they want it to be. |
43,000 |
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X |
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Day +75The doctors decided to adjust the vent levels a bit today to slowly wean Steven down, he's now controlling his volume more. Steven is on 60 milligrams of steroids 3 times a day now, it may be reduced tomorrow. BMT treatment in some respects is voodoo magic still (I'm quoting a dr. on this) in that whatever might work they'll try and every patient is different and may respond differently. Also today, Steven's feeding tube (also used to administer liquid meds) got clogged again; the nurse tried Pepsi, coffee, and the product called "clog zapper" but, nothing worked to unclog it. Steven wrote "you may as well just change it out" so, she did. This is an unpleasant experience and it's the 3rd time he's had to have one put in. He's a sport and I'm on pins and needles. WBC is 6.33
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34,100 |
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X |
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Day +74Dr. Vaughan, head physician of the BMT team consisting of 4 physicians, is the attending doctor again beginning today. He has kept up with Steven and the other patients as all the physicians do; they have regular meetings and discuss treatment plans. Steven is at the level of steroid dosage now that he was at, in the past, when he had the bleeding problem in his lungs. So, they want to take things very slowly and carefully before exercising Steven off the vent; wait a couple of days. Dr. Vaughan said that Steven's mental status has been amazing; that he has really done well. |
34,400 |
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X |
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Day +73Dr. Salzman was pleased with how well Steven has been doing. We look forward to seeing Rhonda, Steven's nurse practitioner, tomorrow; she has been in Florida this past week (work, not vacation). WBC today is 4.52. |
28,200 |
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X |
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Day +72This has been a progressive week; Dr. Salzman said that Steven's chest x-ray from this morning showed improvement and his PEEP level was lowered to 5 tonight. Dr. Vaughan will be taking over as attending physician on Monday. WBC is 5.28.
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30,800 |
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X |
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Day +71Steven progressed to a PEEP level of 6 today on the vent. He has lost weight in the past few weeks; Steven weighed 91 kilograms and now his weight is 82 kilograms. WBC is 4.63.
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39,300 |
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X |
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Day +70Good day today in that Steven had no setbacks. He is still on kidney dialysis, feeding tube, monitor with electrodes attached to his chest and blood pressure cuff (that goes off every half hour: this he described as "being held captive by the b.p. cuff"). Steven is also still on a ventilator (not out of the woods yet); this is still critical care. What I'm trying to say is that Steven is a unique patient in that he can calmly use his computer, which is on a bed table usually used for meals, when he feels up to it watch t.v., and has a smile for everyone who says hello to him (keep in mind he hasn't gotten to speak or get out of his bed in over a month). Many or most patients in this condition are sedated to a point where they are asleep all the time. Steven chooses to be more alert with a minimal percentage of Morphine and Versed administered to him. He continues to require 3 units of platelets a day and sometimes a unit of blood. This evening when Dr. Salzman made rounds she changed Steven's PEEP level on the vent to 7 with 40% oxygen. WBC-4.32
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39,200 |
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X |
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Day +69No big changes made today; 8-PEEP and 40% oxygen. Some of Steven's antibiotics were changed today. WBC-5.63 |
32,500 |
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X |
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Day +68Today Steven's PEEP level was reduced to 8. This evening his oxygen level was increased due to his saturation levels after being suctioned. |
27,700 |
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X |
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Day +67Steven's PEEP level was reduced to 9 this afternoon. Steven's neupagen shots were stopped to see how he does on his WBC without them. |
33,200 |
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X |
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Day +66Steven had a fairly uneventful weekend, not much to report today. |
20,300 |
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X |
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Day +65The first level on the vent that is being adjusted is the oxygen and by tonight it had been reduced slowly to 40%. The PEEP level will be worked on later as Steven progresses. Steven has been sleeping most of the day whenever he can, the benedryl that he receives as a pre-med makes him drowsy; he still needs platelets every 8 hours and usually one unit of blood. Something I learned from a nurse in the last 6 months is that benedryl and 2 tylenol taken together are the exact same thing that you would get in a couple of tylenol pm pills (and a lot cheaper). Dr. Salzman said that if Steven wants to sleep during the day and be awake some at night it's ok until he gets to a level, on the vent, when he will need to do some additional exercising on his own. This is going to take awhile. We're hangin' in there. WBC is 10.53 today.If you can, please give blood and platelets to your local blood bank! Steven used to be a regular blood donor himself but now he is one of those who needs blood products. Of interest: Steven's blood type was O negative and now it is O positive, the same as his donor. Not everyone's blood type changes after a BMT.
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27,500 |
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X |
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Day +64Late last night Steven's oxygen level was increased to 50% and today was relatively uneventful. Dr. Salzman said that each episode of bleeding that he's had in the past since the initial one has not been as severe as the prior one; we also know what can stop that bleeding early on. Now it's been decided to take a slower approach to reducing the vent levels, that is the oxygen and the PEEP. WBC is 7.91.Steven was glad to see John arrive tonight with an envelope of pictures from a TSU football game a few months ago. They were from the after-the-game-band-show when he and his band members and frat brothers joined together! By the way, thanks to Becky, Heather, and the rest of the girls (beautiful friends at TSU) for sending a big Happy Birthday card they made along with a terrific picture of themselves on the cover. These things put a smile on Steven's face! There's something about holding pictures of your friends in you hand and knowing they're thinking of you.
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24,100 |
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X |
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Day +63This morning Steven had a bout of coughing, this requires suctioning out of his trachea tube by the nurse, that produced some blood. We'd been afraid of this happening again, of course. Dr. Salzman said that it is at the same level of tapering dose of steroids that this has been happening in the past so, this evening she told us that she would leave him at the level of steroids he is on now for a few days longer. Being on a high dose of steroids for an extended period produces it's own set of problems, but what choice do we have? Steven's PEEP was set at 10 by this afternoon with his oxygen at 70%. Tonight his oxygen was set at 40%. Steven had a brief period of an irregular heart beat late tonight and his nurse ran an EKG; it returned to normal on it's own. WBC is 9.11, the highest it's been; he still gets neupagen shots every other day to help boost this, so, it goes up and down the shots (DNA material) are $700 a shot. |
27,900 |
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X |
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Day +62Steven started out this morning with his PEEP set at level 6 and his oxygen at 45%. He was given his ablecet (IV antibiotic) by itself this morning and had a low fever, 99. This afternoon Steven was given a unit of platelets and started running a higher fever with chills and high blood pressure, so, the platelets were stopped and sent back to the blood bank to be checked out. Before another unit of platelets were given Steven was given benedryl as a pre-med; usually tylenol is given as well but it can damage the liver. Late this afternoon Steven had a heavy duty coughing spell, had to be suctioned, and felt like he couldn't breathe. This is a terrifying feeling that he has experienced before and, along with the fever, (102 by now) he was exhausted. His PEEP had to be increased to 7 and his oxygen set at 70%. Many days, on the BMT Unit, for every 2 steps forward that you take it seems that you take another step back.The good news today is that we received the results of the latest bone marrow biopsy DNA test from Stanford that reveals whether Steven's marrow is now his donor's, his, or a mixture of the two. We found out that it is 100% his donor's marrow ! Now we just need to get Steven well. |
31,700 |
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X |
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Day +61My sister and Steven's aunt, Nancy, was right; the tracheotomy was a cinch. Steven went to the O.R. before 9:30 and was back by 10:30 AM. By this afternoon Steven was asking for his glasses, his remote, and his laptop. Before the operation his PEEP was at 7 and his oxygen at 70%, during the afternoon Steven's oxygen was reduced to 60%, and then to 50%. Steven needs to get as much sleep at night as possible so that he may work on exercising his lungs during the day. (No more up all night, sleep all day night owl stuff if he wants to make progress). It was really nice to see Steven's face again without all of the props! WBC is 6.95. |
38,800 |
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X |
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Day +60Steven's PEEP on the vent was lowered to 5 this morning with his oxygen at 40%. The doctors decided to try letting Steven breathe on his own for 2 hours, if possible, using a T Piece (tubing connected to the vent that allows the patient to inhale the 40% oxygen from the vent but do all the breathing work on their own). This is the closest thing to being off the vent; it's a lot of work because if you haven't had to exercise your chest muscles that much in a month and have a tube down your throat to boot and a feeding tube stuck through your nose to your stomach, well, you get the picture. Steven did well for a long while, then it got to be a bit too much work after 50 minutes, (though he denied it when asked) it was obvious that he was working very hard. This exercise causes a bit of a setback for the patient because their oxygen has to be raised for them to recover and then gradually lowered again. Steven was exhausted and slept most of the rest of the day while plans were made for a tracheotomy to be performed tomorrow morning. Surgery is scheduled early in the morning and Steven will rest the remainder of the day. The trache will be connected to the vent, below the vocal chords, through Steven's neck. This will allow him to periodically exercise his chest muscles by breathing on his own but allow him relief by being connected to the vent when he is tired. This is also more comfortable for the patient, protects the vocal chords, and is a good way to be weaned off of the vent. WBC today is 5.28. |
57,400 |
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X |
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Day +59John helped Steven put together the 152 piece Galactic Space Tank that Dr. Tolwanni gave Steven last week. Dr. Salzman lowered Steven's PEEP to 6 this morning and his oxygen is at 40%. This afternoon and tonight Steven had clogging in his tube that needed to be suctioned out. It's painful to have to cough while they suction out this tube. |
31,700 |
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X |
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Day +58Steven had a uneventful day, slept, watched T.V., and read the Tropolitan (TSU student newspaper) that John brought from Troy. |
29,000 |
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X |
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Day +57Today was somewhat like Monday, Feb. 11th, because Steven, who is getting the abelcet (IV antibiotic) every other day, was getting platelets at the same time as the abelcet, or amphotericine, and had the same reaction that he had on Monday - back and rib pain, high blood pressure and heart rate; his temp. was over 102. When I noticed the bottle on his IV pole along with the platelets and other fluids I asked the nurse what it was and she said amphotericine. I asked if that's the same as abelcet and she said she didn't know that I could look at his medication sheet. By the time I found out what it was it was too late to stop the reaction. Episodes like this are very frustrating because on Wednesday when he received the drug they made sure to give Steven just the abelcet, slowly, with no blood products and monitored him during that at which time he had no bad reaction. Then, today they ended up doing the same thing with the same reaction as on Monday. I had to argue to get his medication sheet changed so that on Sunday we don't have the same problem.
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30,200 |
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X |
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Day +56Happy Valentine's Day.This morning Steven's PEEP level was reduced to 7 and he had a fairly good day, all things considered. One of the highlights of the day was a visit from Dr. Tolwanni, kidney doc from India, who has a wonderful, caring bedside manner. She was in Arizona during Steven's birthday; what a surprise today when she showed up with a heart shaped Valentine balloon and a gift wrapped present for him. He had a gift for Dr. Tolwanni and for Dr. Salzman too - little crystal guardian angel pins. Steven read email and postings to his message board including one from a favorite high school teacher.John was a genius to bring a computer to Birmingham for me to use and a laptop for Steven because, in addition to updating progress to the website, I can chat with Steven on the instant messenger when I'm not at the hospital. Since he can't speak while on the vent, Steven's best way to communicate is to type on his computer. I couldn't do without one now. |
29,200 |
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X |
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Day +55Steven's oxygen level was set to 50% this morning, now it is at 40% with the PEEP level set at 8. There are a variety of reasons for our setback and, to make a long story short, every one of them is being researched and investigated. (We are awaiting various test results). Fortunately Steven was still on the ventilator when we had the episode of bleeding, otherwise he might have had to have the tube removed and then reinserted (very unpleasant to say the least). Now that he has been on the vent for over 2 weeks Dr. Salzman spoke to us about Steven having a tracheotomy as a next step since he has been on it for so long. Steven is still absolutely amazing in that he keeps his positive attitude (we feed this off of each other; a BMT patient needs a coach who is there as much as possible) [keep praying]. This afternoon Steven was on his laptop reading his email and birthday greetings that he didn't finish last night and tonight he watched a DVD, American Pie 2, that we got for his birthday. He hasn't felt like watching a movie in weeks so, this was great! Meanwhile, I'm finishing reading the novel "The Rescue" by Nicholas Sparks.
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36,900 |
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X |
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