Adventures at the Abels

Well, the doctor and the results did come. They are telling us that what is happening, is related to transplant and a lot of chemotherapy. IT is not really common, but is serious. IT is called veno occlusive disease. His body continues to retain fluid, making it difficult to breathe at times, due to pressure on his lungs, as well as difficult to eat. When the liver is stressed, the kidneys respond by not working too, hence the fluid build up. His weight has gone up about 40 pounds in the last week and a half. IT is a lot of fluid. Most is in his abdomen, but it is also through his hands, arms, legs and feet. They have done ultrasound on his arms and legs each in the past few days looking for clots because of the abnormality of some of the swelling. One of his hands is so swollen it looks like he has a mitten on under his skin. On the bright side his pain is improving and he is trying to eat a little. That is difficult just due to the sheer pressure on his stomach. The doctors are happy with the direction that his blood tests are going. With the concern about clots they doubled the medication they were giving him for his liver. The place on his neck that had the clot was quite swollen last night, but much improved today. Hopefully we can read into that, that the rest of his problems will begin to improve.