Monday +66 (10:30 PM)

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Tomorrow we will learn the results of the second CMV test conducted within the last week. In speaking with the doctor he feels if Jackie's counts continue to hold their own and the CMV viral load is either lowered or the same we may get to take a short trip home! Of course there are a lot of "ifs" here. If all these things come together she could be allowed to travel back home either this weekend or maybe sometime next week for a few day's visit. We will know more tomorrow.

I'm not certain she is ready. She still continues to have a lot of problems with pain and nausea; although today was better than yesterday. Today she had a lack of energy and an overall flu-like feeling. The doctors all seem to feel this is normal and is no big deal. We continue to decrease some of the medications. I think a lot of her problems are associated with the meds. For example, a lot of her back pain went away when we dropped from twice-per-day Ganicyclovir treatments to once-per day. If she were to drop this medication entirely I think she would feel better instantly. Once of the side effects is a nervous state with an unsettled feeling. This certainly describes some of her current difficulties. The problem comes and goes. In fact, it can come on without warning. For example, she wanted to eat a shrimp cocktail at Red Lobster for lunch (we have one below our apartment). So we went over for a late lunch of shrimp cocktail (for her) and cheese biscuits (for me) with a plate of fish and shrimp and salad (and other stuff I didn't pay much attention to). I usually just go for the low-cal cheese biscuits. While eating the shrimp cocktail one of her unsettled spells struck without warning. We hurried the dinner and went back to the apartment where we spent the remainder of the afternoon.

Jackie's counts declined today. Hopefully they will recover without the use of more Neupogen growth factor. Her RBC (Hgl) was 9.7 which was down from yesterday's 10.7. Her WBC count declined (again) to 1.7 from 2.3 yesterday. Her platelets declined to 118 from 171. The good news is that her ANC (absolute neutrophil counts) for yesterday (I don't have today's ANC) was very high. As I recall it was above 1000. It has been substantially higher. I believe at one point before the CMV treatments it was as high as 3400.

I should know more tomorrow regarding a possible visit home. I will update as soon as I know something.

Until Later...

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN