Transplant - Day Twenty-one (+4)

Mornings and evenings are really hard right now. Landen wakes up feeling bad and gets sick. Even though they changed his medicine schedule around he still got sick today. It's hard to figure it all out but we know they will keep trying! It appears he is starting to struggle with mucositis. This is just a result of not having any white cells. He can experience sores in his mouth, to his throat, to his intestines and to his bottom. :-( It is heartbreaking to see him in so much pain. He has mainly experienced pain in his throat and bottom. His bottom has improved a lot but his throat has been bothering him more. He was hurting pretty bad this morning but after he got some pain medicine he started feeling better! His gums are starting to swell too. Even though all of this is normal and expected it doesn't make it any easier. It's also frustrating because the issues he's having are all side effects from different medicines which causes him to need more medicine. He got a blood transfusion today. His hemoglobin dropped from 9.3 to 8. Hopefully the transfusion will give him some more energy. He felt a little better this afternoon. He had the dressing changed on his picc line today and he did great. It went really well! Again, the later the day got he felt worse. He got sick again tonight and ran another fever. Dr. Roehrs told us this morning that he expected a fever either today or tomorrow. Landen didn't get out of bed today and he's still not eating or drinking. It hurts to swallow. They've been able to change all of his medicines to go through his lines except for one but it is a struggle. He is so tough and has such a high pain tolerance. In fact, it's rare for him to complain or ask for pain medicine but if he does you know he's hurting really bad. Right now he is on scheduled pain medicine to help make him as comfortable as possible during this time. Today has been hard. It's so hard to see him like this. The only good part about this is the extra cuddles we get! We are thankful to have this day behind us and we pray tomorrow is better for him.

He got a package from a Molly's Kids follower this morning just before he started feeling bad

Jessica took great care of him today!