Wednesday +35 (Noon Update)

We just returned from the hospital. Today's visit took up most of the morning. Most of the time was spent on waiting for meds to be delivered and for lab blood work to be drawn.

Jackie's counts continue to be in a downward trend. Her RBC (Hgl) was 9.4 which is only slightly down from yesterday. Her WBC count is 2.4 also slightly down. Her platelets have dropped to 50 which is also down. The biggest concern is, of course, the platelet count. They are running additional tests to see if they can determine why this has dropped from a normal range. It could be as a result of either the CMV or the anti-viral that is being used to treat the CMV virus. It could also be some of the other drugs. One of the reasons we were at the hospital so long this morning was due to the fact they switched her IV flushes from Heparin to Sodium Citrate. The SC solution has to be especially made by the pharmacy department. They thought that the repeated Heparin injections, which are used to keep her central line open, might be lowering her platelet count. It seems every time you turn around they are injecting a full syringe of Heparin into each of her two lines.

We will return tonight for another IV anti-viral infusion. We will likely have to do this for about 3 weeks. They repeated the PCR CMV test yesterday to check results and Jackie had already seen a reduction from a 2500 viral load count to 2000. The count can go as high as 200,000+. They hope to see a negative PCR test by next week. They will continue the IV anti-viral infusions until they have 2 PCR-negative tests. In the end, this usually works out to be 3 weeks. At that point they will prescribe a new oral anti-viral drug.

Remember the lady that had the second transplant I talked about a few weeks ago? I asked the nurse about her this morning. I had not seen her husband for more than a week and I was curious about her condition. The nurse told us that she was no longer in the hospital and was now an out-patient. I explained that we must be talking about 2 different people. She said, "No, it's the same lady." She was right! Today leaving the hospital we rode the elevator down with her. She is still very weak, but her 2nd transplant has engrafted and she is doing much better. It was absolutely amazing!

I have one word for you.


Are you listening?


Ok, thanks to my Starbucks comments I've been receiving a lot of email from people with regard to both coffee and Starbucks. A friend sent me a video this morning that is hilarious. I want to warn you that there is a lot of cursing. The "F" word gets used a lot. This isn't for the kids! It is adults only. So you've been warned! I uploaded it to the youtube website. You should be able to see it by cutting and pasting this link, If you don't know how to cut and paste her is a short description. Highlight the link with your cursor. Make certain the entire line turns to some other color. When it is highlighted hold down the Control key on the keyboard and at the same time press the C key (copy). Nothing will happen. Go to the address bar on your browser and erase the address it shows. You can do this by highlighting it and then pressing the Delete key or by putting the cursor at the end of the address and pressing the Backspace key. Either way will delete the address. When it is gone, press the Control key on the keyboard at the same time as you press the V key (I have no idea why the V key is used and not the P - for Paste key). The address link below should be pasted into the browser address bar. Press enter and your browser will take you to the new address.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoO22zl4rRM

That's it for Jackie's update and the quick computer lesson.

Until later,

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN