ICU Day 3

Sorry I couldn't post sooner. There's just been so much that's happened the last couple days. So when they did the endoscopy on Friday, they confirmed there was indeed internal bleeding, but there was so much blood that had already pooled in his stomach area that the doctors couldn't tell exactly where the blood was coming from. So there was nothing they could do to stop the bleeding, since they couldn't tell where it was coming from. After the procedure, he threw up again and continued to have bloody stools. The transfusions continued. I think the grand total for the day was 8 blood units and 8 platelets. But as the day went on, his counts were still not recovering. They were actually all dropping. Since Leo was being pumped with so many fluids, he has become very swollen and is having a very difficult time breathing and talking. Since his counts continued to drop, something else had to be done. Around 9pm on Friday, they took Leo to have another procedure where they make a small incision towards the top of his leg and inject a dye that was supposed to show where the bleeding was. They couldn't exactly determine where the bleeding was happening, but we able to place clips in various areas around his stomach in hopes that this would stop the bleeding. He was in this procedure for about 4 hours, so it was 1am by the time he got back to the ICU. After the procedure, he vomit blood again and was even more short of breath. But since the color of the blood seemed like old blood rather than bright red, that indicated that it was old blood that was already there, rather than a new active bleed. Leo was able to maintain his counts throughout the night with only a couple platelet transfusions and no red blood cell transfusions, which was good news. Through most of Saturday, he was able to keep his white blood cell count at 5.5, his platelet count was in the upper 30's and 40's and his hemoglobin count was 10.5. Since he was able to maintain his counts, the doctors decided to release him from ICU and admit him to the oncology unit, not on the transplant side, meaning that the girls will be able to visit him sometime soon.

So maybe that was more information than you needed to know, but it's what's been going on the past couple days. Thanks so much to Celeste, Glenna, Allan, Griselda and Patrick for coming by to visit today. It really means a lot to Leo knowing that he's got such great family and friends that are there to support him when he is at his lowest. Thanks so much. He can take visitors now, but as always, not if you're sick, coughing, sneezing or sniffling. Thanks!