Worry

I have tried to remain as upbeat as possible about my Dad's condition, but this past week had several concerning developments.

• On Tuesday, he developed a fever of 102.5. His doctor wanted him to go into the ER, but not surprisingly that suggestion was not well-received since he'd only just gotten home from a 5-day hospital stay. So, they started him on oral Cipro at home and that worked to bring the fever down. However, he was having horrible side-effects from it, so tried to stop taking it. The fever came back, so he went back on it.
• He doesn't seem to able to gain much ground with his hemoglobin level, despite last week's transfusion. That makes me worry his bone marrow is not functioning right at all.
• He went to the Coumadin clinic to have his blood checked (he's on Coumadin as a result of a stoke he had about a year ago). He seems not to be responding to the Coumadin therarpy (it's not thinning his blood) and they don't really know why.
• He's not eating much right now.

I leave for Chicago on Friday and plan to be there (with a few days on the East coast on business) for at least two weeks. It happens to fit with work that makes sense for me to do from Chicago, but I am prepared to stay on as necessary.

I keep hoping he's going to turn the corner on this, but the trend line the past several weeks in particular is not running that direction.