Evan's Disease

This is the last post for Monday night. I am back in the hotel room. Jackie said the doc came in and told her they would start chemo tonight. They will be administering the various treatments throughout the night. One of the treatments MAY cause substantial hair loss. The odds are about 50-50. Jackie is kind of bummed about that. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

They performed a Coombs test and found that she has a very common disease associated with CLL. It is called Evans disease. This is what causes the platelets to be depleated. They felt it should be no problem during treatment.

It appears the treatment will be one set of chemo solutions to reduce the CLL cell count, with another set of chemo treatments once her platelet count returns to a somewhat normal level. This will take several days at a minimum.

Overall Jackie feels well, but tires easily.

Bruce

Food Arrives

I came back to the hotel room about 8:00 PM on Monday night to find a fantastic gift basket from Dave and Susan Ahlquist. David and Susan are friends of Stanley and Ruth Lapidus. David is a Doc here at the Mayo and Susan is head of patient education (I think). In any case, Jackie was overjoyed to see the goodies!
Stanley is on the left. David in the middle. Susan on the right.

Mayo Food

I'm sorry to say, but the food at the hospital is bleak. It is surprising for a world-class hospital to offer such poor food. Even more amazing is they discourage foot from the outside. One must wonder if this is to promote some health benefit or to protect hospital financial interests.

monday night update

please keep in mind this blog will be edited on my treo mobile phone. therefore, things like punctuation, spelling will be a little weak.

jackie got through the 2nd bone marrow biopsy in10 days without too much difficulty. pain iss manageable. they expect to start her first round of chemo tonite.

monday nite

This is a web log (blog) created to track jackie's progress. Here is a pic of Jackie at the Mayo.