Ernie update

The bottom line appears to be that he is doing as the doctors expected him to be doing, if not better.

It's in the details that you shake your head in wonder. He was moved to ICU Saturday, but once again it was in response to his body's reaction to the donor's stem cell. He's had problems, and will most likely have more. The doctors get one problem fixed and another shows up - but they are, so far, all problems they expected to show up at one time or another and are prepared for them. Most of the time he's sleeping - not from medications, but just from his body wanting sleep. And the doctors say that is the best thing for him.

The overall good news is that his white blood cell count continues to go up every day. That means the donors stem cells are attaching and are regenerating white blood cells. But his body is fighting the foreign stem cells, so he needs sleep. As I told you, when I was there for 2 hours a week ago Saturday he was asleep at least an hour and half of that time and of the half hour he was not asleep he was probably "out of it" half that time. Karen & Bill were there the next day and he slept almost the entire time they were there. Candi says he's almost constantly asleep and when he's "awake" his talking frequently does not make sense (she says she's taking notes and he has a lot of explaining to do when this is all over).

At this point we can only put our faith in the doctors and pray. Ernie's doing his part. I'm sorry this news isn't any better, and I hope to be talking to you with some good news by this weekend. Right now we're planning on going to see him this weekend, depending on his remaining in ICU.