Home

Well we did come home on Wednesday afternoon. It was really nice to sleep in a real bed. Ian had to use extra pillows though, since it was too flat after getting used to having the head of the hospital bed raised. I think it was worth it though. We've just been hanging around the house mostly. Ian has a low red blood cell count and anemia from all the treatments, so he's pretty tired. Yesterday Ian had an appointment with Dr. Rich, who will be his main doctor. Luckily he works at the hospital in Provo, so we don't have to go far. Dr. Rich spent a lot of time with us, talking about treatments, tests, what we can expect in the next little while, answering questions, etc. The effectiveness of treatment is measured by benchmarks, with one every three months. The first one is that his white blood counts will decrease to normal levels and that other blood counts will increase to normal levels. Based on how he's doing at 3 months will kind of determine whether his treatment stays the same, or if it needs to be changed. The doctor also said it will probably be 3 months before Ian is feeling all the way back to normal, though he should feel better every day. Anyway, for now Ian will have blood tests done every week and meet with Dr Rich or his nurse practitioner every week for at least 2 months. He doesn't have to get another bone marrow biopsy done for a long time, which is a very good thing.