IMPROVING SLOWLY

Johnny is proving once again how strong he is by overcoming every obstacle in his path.  He is far from being out of the woods, but comparatively speaking, has made huge improvements from yesterday.  Yesterday his eyes were swollen shut from the chemo and fluid retention and today they look much better - although he's left with two black eyes which make it look like he was scrapping it out or something. The swelling around his head has also gone down -- he had these weird painless lumps all over that were soft to the touch but freaked everyone out.  His lumps are evening out nicely.

He's much more coherent and has longer stretches of awake time.  His oxygen levels are stronger and he almost doesn't need the O2 mask 24/7, heart beat has easily dropped 100 pts, and blood pressure is nearing normal numbers. As Joey and I were driving up to the hospital today, I tried to forewarn him about Johnny's condition.  I told him that he was talking in his sleep, and some of the stories he comes up with.  Joey's response was "I'm glad he's having good dreams and not nightmares.", and that we are all thankful for.  When we walked in, Johnny was slightly more coherent than yesterday, sleeping, still on O2, but the freaky thing was he was foaming at the mouth.  Mike told us that it was all due to his heavy snoring and the nurses/doctor's were good with it, you just have to wipe his mouth occasionally.

We always wondered what he dreamed about, either really scary stuff or bunnies and ponies -- sounds like it's more bunnies and ponies.  He's asleep right now and just told me "Guess what? I can make these dudes go high."  I asked, "What dudes?" and he said, "these dudes right here" making a hand motion of where they were.  Then he said, "Take them away, take them away."  All of this happening with closed eyes and if you ask him when he's awake what he was dreaming he looks at you like your crazy or something. Even though I know he's dreaming, it still freaks me out.

He's extremely weak which makes his voice small and shaky -- you can tell it takes every ounce of energy just to say a few words so he keeps it short and too the point. When he has to use the potty I ask if he wants to stay in bed to do it, but he refuses and insists to get up.  He's so weak he can't stand on his own and leans on the bed for support, all the while wincing in pain (but of course if you ask what hurts he says "nothing"). The doctor's ordered physical therapy to begin asap.  I know he'll hate it, but it's for his own good. 

It's funny (okay, not really funny at all) when he starts new chemo we are given a list of 'possible' side effects listed by "Likely", "Less Likely", and "Rare but Serious" (all of which seems to have life threatening consequences).  Johnny seems to skip the first two lists and go straight to "Rare But Serious".  So far SuperJohnny has conquered them all. 

I asked how many more blocks of chemo before transplant -- and this might be it. As long as he's in remission... or close to remission... or his numbers are starting to trend toward remission numbers, he will go straight to transplant.  Sounds like the doctor's aren't too picky about his numbers anymore and will take what they can get....

We pray with each new day he regains his strength and mind and brings him one step closer to transplant.