Thursday +71 (10:30 PM) Leap Days, Skip Forward 2 Days

Ok, the numbering for the blog just skipped a couple of days. By our own count we are at Day +71. The Mayo has us as Day +72. Somewhere along the way my numbering system for the blog got fouled up and I was hesitant to make any change. The hospital has us a day ahead because Jackie had two Day Zeros.

Not a lot happening today. It was more-or-less like every other day during the last week. We did our usual morning visit to the hospital for IV Ganciclovir, visit with the doctor or PA, blood tests, results of blood tests, etc. We are starting to become a fixture around "Station 94". All the nurses know us by name. They know we are from Oklahoma. Most of them know how many kids we have and their ages. Some of them are beginning to feel like an extended family.

Jackie continued to have periods of nausea and her usual unsettled feeling about 6:00 PM. I have no idea what causes the reaction, but usually around 6:00 she become fidgety with tremors. An Oxycodone usually settles her down (of course), but tonight it didn't. It lasted for about 2 hours and then she began to feel OK. I'm certain it is a reaction to one of the medicines, but it is impossible to know which one. In looking up the side effects for some of the meds it seems like the Ganciclovir could be the cause. Hopefully we only have a few more days of the IV treatments.

They reduced the level of Cyclosporine today. This is the primary anti-rejection drug. They said her creatine levels were getting too high which signals a kidney problem. The levels have been very good. From what I gather normal levels are a bit unusual. They are lowering the Cyclosporine level in an attempt to head off any potential problems. The Cyclosporine level has been reduced many times in the past. It will continue to be reduced until sometime after the transplant.

Jackie's counts continue to hold. They seem to be slowly improving. Her RBC (Hgl) count was 10.0 today. That was a fractional increase from 9.9 yesterday. Her WBC count was unchanged at 2.0. Her platelets improved to 145 from yesterday's 133. As someone pointed out to me today small changes in these numbers mean very little. The measurement error in the machinery used to do the counting can be larger than the actual fractional changes. So a tenth of a point here or there is really meaningless.

Until Later....

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN