Eli's Girl

Hi there! It's me again coming at ya from room 1210 with an update. Mr. Man is sitting next to me, as I type, playing his favorite video game, Galaga. Thank God for those plug and play systems. For $40 he can play all the Pac-Man, Galaga, and Pole Position (and some other games) all night (or at least when he's sick of ESPN). He's been complaining about being bored. Now that they have backed off of the medications they were giving him that made groggy he's now realzing how much time he's spending in the hospital.

Today his counts continued drop, as we want them too. His white blood cell count is down to 600. Once they zero out, they'll start to regenerate themselves. He's actually right on schedule. The doc said that at about 5 days post transplant his counts should be very low (he hits the 5 day mark tomorrow). He's now considered to be neutropenic which means he has to watch what he eats, no fresh fruits or veggies and his meat has to be prepared well done. The doc doesn't want him to get an infection while his immune system is weak and eating uncooked produce can expose him to bad things. He can still eat candy though. On Sunday I was on the phone with my friend Holly as I went from store to store, in the rain, trying to hunt down his special request, pastel colored candy corn (the kind that come out around Easter). Well since Easter candy has been on the shelves since before Valentine's Day I didn't think finding them would be an issue. WRONG! They were nowhere to be found so Eli had to settle for Skittles and fruit sours. A couple of days later Holly told me to be expecting a package. To my surprise she had not only found the candy corn Eli wanted, but she ordered them and had them overnighted. There was one drawback. She could only find them in bulk so we now have 10 lbs of pastel colored candy corn! When Eli opened the box and saw the 50,000,000 little pink, yellow, white, and lavendar candy all he could say is, "Wow!" The candy corn was right on time too. One of the medications that they give him has distorted his taste buds so his desire to eat certain foods just isn't there. But of course, the candy corn didn't disappoint, so he now keeps a cup full beside his bed to munch on during the day. Since there are a few extra pieces we decided to share with the nurses and visitors on his floor. Now whenever anyone enters 12 south they will find a huge container filled with spring colored candy corn, compliments of the Alexander and Campbell families, to enjoy. The jar was completely full. That's a note on top to let folks know to help themselves, looks like it's working.




Let me run. He's done playing now and I'm going to order his food. I'll be back soon with another update. Thank you so much for your prayers, positive thoughts and meals. They are truly helping us get by.

Love ya!
Kimberly