Twin

Jon is doing much better, but he is still extremely weak. His hemoglobin is back down to a 7 and it is just staying there. It is supposed to be a 16. So, our doctor came to talk to us a few days ago and we had told him that Jon was a twin. He was talking to us and said he didn't want to do a blood transfusion because of all the risks and he thought Jons hemoglobin would go up on its own, but it just isn't. He also said that he didn't want to do a blood transfusion because if Jon needed a transplant down the road it makes it that much harder to find a match. The doctor came in to talk to us yesterday about this again. It was the same old story, these levels are back down, these ones are up, these are normal....etc. Also, he said they re-ran the blood cultures and they came back positive for the staph infection, so they hadn't gotten it all yet and had to do more IV antibiotics meaning he wasn't going home. He also said he still didn't want to do the blood transfusion, but then said, "actually, why don't you give your brother a call and have him come in." James and Liz had come down and spent the day with us, and then headed to Lizs parents an hour away, and so right after they had gotten down there, we called and asked James if he could do it. He didn't even hesitate. He came down immediately. In the meantime, the doctor called the blood bank to explain the situation. Well, James got down there and suddenly they didn't want to do it. They said that they hadn't done direct donations in 4 years because there was too much falsifying information. They talked to a few people and finally got it approved. It will take at least a day though to test the blood. That means Jon may be there a few more days. The doctor also thought about doing a PICC line since Jon has to have treatments every month. We are unsure where everything is going to go for now because our doctor is just taking things one step at a time. We are very thankful for James that he was so willing to do this for Jon. It truly is a blessing. We all want to see Jon start feeling better.