DAY +9

Hello Everyone!! We hope you had a GREAT weekend!! Erik and I had a WONDERFUL weekend away from hospital and were able to enjoy spending some much needed time together. I think marriage can be hard in normal circumstances, then add in a sick baby and months living apart from each other....it can be VERY stressful and difficult. We enjoyed a wonderful 4 course dinner at our favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot. If you have not been there, GO! It's well worth the money and very romantic and fun! We try to go at least once a year, but it is pricey, so we save it for special occasions...and this one fit the criteria! While we were away, Baby D was able to spend some quality time with my mom. We are sooooooo thankful to her for staying the weekend with him.

Now back to Dylan. Not too much has changed since Friday. He is still really swollen from the fluids. They have given him medicine to help him pee out some of the fluids. They are also trying to limit his fluids as much as possible, but he has a lot of medicines he needs, along with his TPN. He has also gotten a lot of transfusions since transplant. This is expected and completely normal, but the transfusions also add to the fluids. Since transplant on the 11th, he has gotten 2 blood transfusions and 5 platelet transfusions with another one tonight. WOW!! That is a lot of blood! (Thank you to all of you who donate blood on a regular basis!!) His throat continues to heal from the sores, but it's hard to tell since we cannot see them. He has been wanting his binky a lot more and seems to enjoy the sucking motion, so this tells us that his throat must be getting better. His tongue is less swollen, but he is still having trouble swallowing his saliva because it is so thick. This should be going away toward the end of this week when his counts start to come up. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, pray that his counts start to come up VERY SOON!! His body should be starting to reproduce cells around this time. They can see that his body is starting to reproduce, but only on a very small level, a level that the computer does not even detect. They may discontinue one of his antibiotics tomorrow if they do not see an increase. Sometimes the antibiotics can hinder the growth. The Doc is not worried about Dylan's progress as of yet and is hopeful that he will continue on track this week. Dylan's overall countenance is getting better also. He seems more happy and in less pain. He is still on a constant morphine drip, but it is at a very low dose. When we got back to the hospital today, Dylan woke up and gave Daddy and I some huge smiles!! We missed him so much this weekend and the smiles were a wonderful present!! We tend to take them for granted when he is feeling well because he smiles SO MUCH!! So during the bad times....every smile is CHERISHED!!

We have a big week ahead of us with a lot of recovering to do. Dylan has been such a trooper through this past week and a half, and we are really looking forward to having our happy baby back and for him to be feeling better. Please pray for a miraculously quick recovery!! With God, nothing is impossible!!

Walking by Faith,
Michelle, Erik & Baby Dylan