2005 Journal Entries

Archie is doing really well. So well, in fact, that may get to come home from the hospital tomorrow. His platelets, which peaked at well over 3 million, have been dropping steadily since Friday. Today the CBC showed 483,000 platelets, a count which is within normal range but still high for a patient on day twelve of his first course of chemotherapy.

His AGC (Absolute Granulocyte Count), or the measure of Archie’s ability to fight infection, is 32, up from Sunday’s low of 26. A normal AGC is anything above 1,000, so anytime the AGC is less than 500, the doctors worry about the occurrence of a serious infection. As frightening as it is, this drop is normal and indicative that the chemotherapy is working. Archie is doing great, though, and hasn’t shown any sign of fever. We hope he’ll be able to stay healthy until his neutrophils or SEGS, bands, and white blood cells begin to climb again.

Cynthia, Archie’s nurse, taught me how to change the dressing and clean the skin around his Broviac, as well as how to flush his Broviac and change the injection caps on his lines. I’ll have to change his dressing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as well as in between if there is moisture under the dressing. The injection caps on Archie’s lines have to be changed once a week, and I’ll have to flush those daily. There isn’t much in this world that truly unnerves me, but I admit that half way through the exercise I really, really wanted to just quit, leave the room and cry. It is imperative that the injection caps and site stay sterile, and the clamps on the lines, which are essentially extensions of an artery flowing into Archie’s heart, have to be opened and closed at the appropriate time or Archie could bleed out. I know that I can’t depend on John to take over the procedure because he cannot cope with blood, but I know, too, that I’ll soon grow comfortable with this responsibility. Just the same, it is a very intimidating responsibility.

Archie had physical therapy with Todd again today. It is refreshing to watch Archie work with Todd. Archie hasn’t wanted anything at all to do with P. T. for months. I suspect that his disinterest had something to do with him getting sick, with the swelling of his spleen and liver, because Archie’s illness has been brewing for awhile and it all just seems to add up. But Archie is doing so well in P. T. now. When Todd asked him if he was finished, Archie shook his head in protest: “No!”