Thursday +50 (7:45 PM) Halfway!!!

As you can see from the title today marks our halfway point! The matched-unrelated-donor (MUD) transplant protocol calls for 100 days of treatment. Maybe today we should begin to count down instead of counting up?

Actually the doctors have our count slightly wrong. They show us as being "+52". I think this is due to her having two "Day Zero" transplant days. In any case, Jackie doesn't want the mistake corrected.

I received a lot of comments from the past several days saying, "We want to see Jackie on the video". Believe me...I've tried! She has refused all efforts to do any more. I did receive a comment from her tonight saying she might "think about it" tomorrow. We'll see? She wanted to me to reiterate her appreciation to all those involved in the "Pryor" video for taking the trouble (and time) to send it along. It really made her day and couldn't have come at a better time.

Jackie had a reasonably good day today. She continues to have back and shoulder pain. The doctors think it is associated with her Mycophenolate meds. As you may recall this was reduced by 1/3 a few days ago. So far, if that is the culprit it hasn't helped.

It seems the doctor ordered another chimerism test. This is the test that tells us how many of the cells in Jackie's body are hers and how many are donor cells. This is the second chimerism test. They like to see 100% by day 100. This is a test that requires several days for results. We should have something within a few days.

We will be going to the hospital in a few minutes for our nightly Ganicyclovir IV infusion. We hope to receive the results of CMV blood test that was performed today. If it is negative she will be placed on oral anti-virals and we will likely graduate to clinic-only visits. It is possible the test won't be ready until tomorrow. If I get the results tonight I will post them as an update.

Jackie's blood counts continue to hold steady with only fractional declines since yesterday. Todays counts were RBC (Hgl) 9.5 versus 9.6 yesterday. Her WBC count was 2.4 down from yesterday's 2.6. Her platelets were 129 down from yesterday's 131.

Until Later....


Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN