Hospital - Day 5

Well we are at Day 5 for the hospital stay...I haven't been as good as I originally said about keeping this up but it seems like something always comes in the way...lets see if I can bring everyone up to speed...So Rudy's total blood cell count dropped dramatically on Friday...the doctors gave him a neupogen shot to stimulate his cell count. The shot worked and we have been working on keeping his counts in check. The doctors have been ordering a number of tests to try and figure out what exactly is wrong with him. The concern is that all his symptoms are presenting like cancer but they haven't been able to find any malignancy (don't get me wrong that is a very good thing!)

A couple of his tests have come back suggesting he might have some type of autoimmune disease. We are waiting on a couple more tests to come back to determine if we travel down that path now.

In order to rule out cancer completely Rudy is going into surgery today to have a lymph node removed from under his left armpit. They are going to be biopsying the heck out of it - which Rudy and I are extremely excited about. This will be the piece of mind we need to completely rule out cancer.

I can't believe we've been in the hospital as long as we have. Diego has been doing really well with not having mommy and daddy at home at night but I think that yesterday he was D-O-N-E. Diego spent the day in the hospital with us playing legos, etc. Rudy's parents took him home to get him ready for bed. I got a call with a hysterical Diego on the phone stating that he "wanted his mommy". Talk about breaking a mother's heart. Rudy and I had a feeling that a meltdown was coming as this situation is a lot for anyone to comprehend let alone a 5 year old. Talk about being torn...do I stay with Rudy in the hospital or do I go comfort my son...Rudy and I talked and we decided that since he was stable I should go and be with Diego..

I went to the house and put Diego to bed...basically he needed some mommy snuggle time...we called Rudy at the hospital and Diego let him know that "he just needed to sleep with mommy for a little bit"...I got up at 4:30AM so I could beat the "vampires" before they woke up Rudy. For those that don't know "vampires" are the lab people that come to take blood samples for the day. They always come around 5AM before the sun comes up thus the nurses call them the vampires...quite fitting I think.

Thank you for all the thoughts, prayers, kind words - we are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Please continue to pray for clarity for the doctors so that we can figure out what exactly is going on, for strength for Diego, and for a quick and successful surgery for Rudy.