Wednesday +14 (10:15 AM)

The docs were just in to see Jackie. They are very pleased with her progress. Her counts continue to improve. Her RBC count moved from 8.4 yesterday to 8.6 today. Her WBC count moved up another couple tenths of a point to 2.4. Her platelets have skyrocketed! Today they are 75! Up from 50 yesterday!

They have discontinued all but one IV antibiotic. She still receives this infusion every 8 hours. They are going to do a sinus CT scan today to see if she has any sinus infection . She mentioned to the infectious diseases team that her ears were stopped up yesterday. As her neutrophil level continues to improve they will begin to worry less about any stray bugs that she might pick up.

I asked when they might conduct a chimerism study. A chimerism study determines the ratio of donor cells to host cells. It provides a roadmap as to her progress. They are going to do a peripheral blood cell (PBC) study today. The results won't be available until about Monday. I'm not certain where she should be at this point, but a 30-50% would be nice. A lot of patients have a 100% chimerism number by day 100.

I just spoke to the man who's wife had not engrafted in over 26 days. They were preparing to do another transplant this morning when the doctor received a page from the lab. They were literally about to insert the needle. The lab said her white blood cell count had risen to .5. They think it could be signs of engraftment so they cancelled the transplant. His spirits were improved in hopes something was taking place.


Well, that's all for now. Jackie is feeling well this morning. Her energy level is still quite low but improving slowly.

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN