Patrick Henry Moore

Henry and his donor, Russ Baxter.

November 18, 2008

Journal

Saturday, November 22, 2008 3:34 PM CST

We had a great visit to Michigan last weekend. Russ and Connie and their girls, Emily and Sarah, welcomed us into their beautiful home in Canton. We decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner together, which was prepared by Connie. It was so delicious! We were able to share many of the untold stories of our lives for the seven years prior to Henry’s transplant. It becomes more evident each time that we speak, that the timing in the selection of Russ as Henry’s donor, was always in God’s grand plan. We thank God for him and his family.
The weather in Michigan was cold, of course. Snow flurries blew all weekend and the temperatures were in the teens at night. Russ took Monday and Tuesday off from work to spend time with us and we enjoyed a trip to the Hands on Museum in Ann Arbor. We also stopped to eat at several of our favorite restaurants there. It made me miss Ann Arbor, though only until I was chilled to the bone by the cold weather .
On to the appointment…Russ visited the Cancer Center with us and was able to meet many of the staff that Henry sees during each of the visits. Each of them greeted him with kindness and always ended with a sincere Thank You for his gift to Henry. The neatest was that he met the transplant coordinators. They were in direct contact with Russ’s designated representative. They mentioned that Russ and Henry’s photos were recently featured at the National Marrow Donor Program’s annual meeting.

I am happy to report that Henry had the best appointment. His lung function test showed major improvement since the visit three months ago. For the first time, all of his blood counts were inside the normal range. His white count was the highest it has ever been, even before the transplant. Normally, one wouldn’t get excited about a high white count, because that would mean the body was fighting an infection. That isn’t the case for Henry. His marrow has finally found the overdrive gear! For everyone keeping close tabs, here are the formal results:

White Blood Count 8.2 normal range is 4.5 to 13.5
Hemoglobin 13.7 normal range is 12.5 to 16.0
Platelets 150 normal range is 150 to 450
Absolute Neutrophil Count 4.0 normal range is 1.8 to 10.1


I was most excited about the white count. I was so nervous that it would never get high after the transplant and Dr. Levine kept telling me not to worry. I am going to relax a little now-after all, we did trek all the way to Michigan to have him as Henry‘s transplant doctor!

We are excited about Christmas as are the boys. They are old enough now to be tempted by the commercials AND to make out their lists. We will be staying home for the holidays and enjoying our time together as one happy family.

We hope that your holidays give you everything you wish for~

The Moore’s

P. S. please visit the Flickr link to see photos from our recent visit to MI.

Hospital Information:

Home Sweet Home
403 Harvey Street
Radford, VA 24141

Links:

E-mail Author: armpkm@aol.com