Transplant Sunday +4 (Where's Bob?)

The day began with rain. It wasn't until about 3:00 PM that the sky began to clear and the day became sunny and nice.

Jackie was really "out of gas" this morning. I had to push her to the morning appointment in a wheelchair. She was able to return on her own power. The morning appointment went OK. Because of he stomach pain they prescribed Oxycodone. I believe this is the "Rush Limbaugh" drug and is the same thing as OxyContin. So far she hasn't had any more stomach episodes and hasn't needed any of the heavy-duty painkiller.

This afternoon Jackie began to run a fever. She had fever and chills and at one point her temperature exceeded the transplant center's threshold temperature of 101.3 degrees. The highest measurement I received was 101.9. I called the transplant center and they had me bring her in immediately. Once at the hospital her temperature fell to about 100. They began her on a long-term course of IV antibiotics. They also did blood cultures and took a chest X-ray. From now until her counts begin to rise (2.5-3 weeks) she will get twice-a-day IV of Vancomycin plus another IV antibiotic that I didn't recognize.

The transplant team assures us this is all quite normal. They told us it would be highly abnormal if this had not occurred. It is possible she has some type of infection but it likely she does not. They will have some type of idea when blood cultures come back in about 48 hours. Most of the time there is not a problem. The body, through a self defense mechanism, realizes that blood counts are very low. It goes into a self-defense mode and says, "I need to raise the body's temperature to fight off any bad germs since I don't have any white blood cells to do the job." This is referred to as a neutropenic fever. The IV broad-spectrum antibiotics are a preventative. Jackie will receive two IV infusions every day (8 AM and 7 PM).

Today I had a brush with greatness. While going to the pharmacy to get Jackie's prescriptions filled I was going through the subway system between the various buildings when I ran into a very well dressed lady. We were in a tiny, obscure hallway and walking toward one another. I thought I recognized her. I said, "Hello, how are you today?" She replied (with a big, bright smile), "Just fine, happy Easter and how are you today?" with a southern drawl. I replied, "Just fine thank you!"

The well-dressed lady was Senator Elizabeth Dole, wife of former Senator Bob Dole - the original Viagra spokesman. Of course this begs the question, "Where's Bob?" I'm fairly certain I say Liz go into an office marked "ED Research Center" :) :) :) I guess that explains the smile:)

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN