Wedneday Evening

Jackie ended up having a good day. She felt very well and she ran no fever for most of the day. She did run a 1 degree fever a few hours after her platelet transfusion, but this is probably normal for her. She has always run a slight temperature after a platelet transfusion. It is probably part of her autoimmune response. At 8:00 PM this evening she actually had a 1 degree below normal temperature.

I managed to snap this picture amidst many complaints! No makeup...no clothes...hair not fixed. You can probably visualize the conversation.

She is still somewhat neutropenic (susceptible to infection, colds, fever, etc). To increase her neutraphils they gave her an injection of Neupogen. This is one of the somewhat newer drugs (FDA approved 1998) that has helped a great deal with cancer treatment. It is a "growth" type drug that promotes increases in the various types of blood cells. Her white cell count has begun to decrease as a result of the chemo. This is a good sign. CLL is typically characterized by a runaway white blood cell count. In the past her WBC count has been as high as 135,000 (in June). Normal is 5-10,000. Prior to chemo it was about 70,000. Just after chemo it was 23,000. I believe today's WBC count was 17,000.

She received phone calls from many of her friends today. She asked me to thank everyone for thinking of her. I won't even attempt to list the calls! I'll just say thanks!

The docs still think she will be released about Friday. If blood cultures are OK and her platelets recover and appear stable I think she will be released. I don't think her platelet stability can be really be determined before Friday (my opinion).

Several people have asked me where they can get more info on CLL and her condition. One of the best sites I've found is: www.clltopics.org. This site can be very technical but it also distills much of the doctorese into laymen's terms.

Well until later...

Bruce