...And The Bottom Drops From Under Us

The clicking stopped. You know that moment when you lose your stomach? You throw your hands in the air, squeeze your eyes shut, and scream? That's what we're doing now.

Clark's white and red blood cells and his platelet count have been low and have continued to drop over the past couple days. This raised caution flags to the doctors who immediately searched for a cause. Clark has a sever virus that is very rare and difficult as difficult can be. Whatever virus attacked his liver, is now causing his immune system to mistake his bone marrow cells for something foreign and is attacking them. The labs have not come back to secure which virus he has and it remains a mystery as to what caused all this in the first place. It will continue to attack Clark's body if they don't stop it now. They are changing some medications and will treat it as aggressively as they can. They are giving him immunosuppression in order to help his bone marrow come through this. It's a good sign that his white blood cell count is responding to this new medication which they started about three days ago. There is a risk that Clark's body won't start to produce the cells that he needs and that he would need a bone marrow transplant. We are all hoping that it won't come to this but they are getting the necessary people involved as a precaution. Dr. Susman described a transplant as plan F. He also said that "Clark's case is as bad as it gets but I feel confident we are going to make it through this." The liver is still functioning very well. They do not expect his liver to be affected again, but they continue to keep a close eye on it. The doctors warned us that even though Clark looks good, he is very sick and it's possible that he could get sicker before he gets better. They won't know until the end of next week if he will need a bone marrow transplant or not. Until then, we pray!

On the plus side, Clark was extubated tonight (the tube removed) so he can talk. Due to the changes in his medication for immunosuppression, he was put on Dolotin, a pain med, that he pumps with a button as needed. He will go back to the OR next week to be closed a little bit more. His attitude and spirits are still high. Tonight he said, "I don't care what happens, as long as I'm still alive!"