Day 12

Yesterday wasn't a good day for Collin. The bleeding in his mouth was significantly worse. It was enough that he had to receive blood transfusions. I believe he had 2, but he could have had more. He also had at least 4 platelet transfusions and 2 packed cells transfusions. I am not exactly sure what packed cells are. All I know is that they are another part of the blood and are used when clotting is an issue. The bleeding was worse today because his platelet counts were low again and his liver is getting worse. He had to receive a clotting medication to help get the bleeding under control. An Ear Nose and Throat or ENT doctor was called in to look at Collin's mouth. She put a special medication ointment on the inside of his mouth to help with the bleeding and packed it with gauze. It did help. The bleeding slowed. However, this evening the bleeding was starting to pick back up again. It was starting to seep out through the gauze. His platelet count was low again, so he was receiving platelets and blood when I left the hospital around midnight. That will hopefully help keep it from getting worse again. His liver is getting worse. The doctor said it was at an 11. I don't know what that means, I do know it is not good. It has something to do with the blood work they do to check his liver. I am going to ask in the morning when we see the docs again. The doctor was getting frustrated because we haven't been able to start the medication for his liver. The doctor said he didn't know when or even if we would be able to start it. He is looking more jaundice every day. He is also staring to bruise very easily. His blood pressure was higher today. They started him on another type of blood pressure medication. It was doing the yo yo again today. So we weren't able to start the liver medication because of this and the amount of bleeding he was having out of his mouth. His dialysis machine was not changed today. His rate is still the same. It is still too early to tell if his kidneys are recovering or not. Hopefully they should be able to start to see some improvement in them soon. He still his having trouble with his skin. Of course he is jaundice. He still has open sores on the inside crease of his legs & his arm pits. They will start looking better, but then he decided to move a limb a lot and it makes them worse. If we don't let him move his limbs it makes him more upset then he already is. We just watch the sores closely and treat the best we can. He has no developed sores on his bottom. He also has some small blisters on his back. The nurses have done an excellent job making sure they keep turning him. His favorite way to lay is on his left side. That is the side they sometimes put him on if he is agitated and they can't quite get him settled down all the way. Right now they are trying to not have him on his back unless they absolutely have too. This is because of the sores on his bottom. His white blood cell count went up today again. It didn't go up very much. The doctor didn't have his ANC number handy when I talked to him. That is OK. He did tell me the count did go up, just not as much as it had been. That is all I have for now. Thank you to everyone for their continous prayers and support.