+247 Were Home (Been Home Since Monday)

WBC 10,000 - normal
Hemoglobin 8.7 - low
Platelets - 346 - awesome!
Weight 11.4 kilos - he lost some

We've been home all week. Thank you so much for your prayers. He is eating very well and has gained his strength back. He has lost some weight so we (especially the nanny) are busy making a variety of good foods for him. She (the nanny) makes a killer bean dip that he loves.

The doctors have a plan. Here it is:

• April 12 - physical exam and Prograf level
• April 19 - IVIG, Zenopax, and Pentamadine. They want to move all of these to every 4 weeks
• Week of April 19 they will do a test run of the drug Bactrum (Septra). This is a sulfa drug (antibiotic) which is very good at preventing bacterial infections. David's donor was allergic to sulfa drugs. Since transplant his doctors have been cautious not to give him sulfa drugs. Now, they want to give him a small amount to see if he will tolerate it. The reason being, Pentamadine (prevents pneumonia and is used in place of sulfa drugs) is really hard on the veins (burns the veins) and does not prevent most bacterial infections. Another reason is that they want to remove his Hickman line within a few weeks! They want him to tolerate the Bactrum in order to take him off IV Pentamadine. Bactrum is an antibiotic which he will take for "long-term." I'm not sure how long, possibly for another year. I was not happy about using an antibiotic for a whole year because he has had no bacterial infections since transplant except for the most recent urinary tract infection. We've done a great job keeping him infection free. Dr. Weinberg agreed that being uncircumcised contributed to the UTI but assured me that if he was on Bactrum he would not have had the UTI. What can I say? The idea sounds good and if the results are positive the central line can come out!

Please pray that he tolerates the sulfa drug so things can go as planned.