And here is the better news..

D+24:  I ended my last entry promising to bring better news next time and for once my expectations have been surpassed.  Fabian’s blood counts have leapt massively in the past 48 hours and today, for the first time since transplant, they lifted the isolation restrictions and ‘opened’ the door.  So to quote Braveheart, “FREEDOM!”.  But 4 weeks in room 9 has so conditioned Fabian to live with captivity he was reluctant to step outside and even felt rather down about the possibility.  I’m sure this will pass.  So was this sudden change in fortune a miracle I hear the prayer warriors ask?  Well, not exactly.. For the past few days he has been on Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor, known as GCSF.  This is often given where engraftment is slow and is rather like jump-starting a car whose battery is too flat to start itself.  The GCSF stimulates stem cell production and in Fabian’s case it has certainly done the trick.  The commensurate rise in neutrophils has also helped clear the infection and bring down his temperatures and some of his energy has returned, enough to resume construction of lego project that had been shelved.  He’s even started to eat small amounts of solids and managed to hold it down.  Such a different Fabian from the one a few short days ago; we’re truly thankful to God.  It’s likely his counts will fall back slightly once they stop the GCSF and they need to see them remain for at least 3 consecutive days above the threshold before declaring he has properly engrafted.  The flipside of engrafting is an increase in GvHD which in Fabian’s case is a nasty rash so he’s now on steroids which will combat that side effect.

Now what was that about feeling half empty?