Tuesday +67 (11:00 AM) Evening Update

As you probably already know, Jackie's CMV test was negative today. This is the first time in about 2 months this has happened. Now we need just one more negative test to be in the clear! This morning as we walked to the nurse's station area of the hospital the doctor met us at the door. He said, "You must not have heard the good news! Your CMV test is negative!" I think he was as excited about the test as we were!

We will be meeting with the ID (infectious disease) doctor on Thursday and the transplant doctor sometime this week. They will consult and determine as to whether to take Jackie off IV Ganciclovir and continue with oral Ganciclovir. It is also possible they could take her off the Ganciclovir completely. This is unlikely. She will probably continue with the oral form with a slow tapering of dosage over time.

If Jackie's counts continue to improve I believe they will allow a trip home. We should know something later in the week. With regard to counts they improved today. In spite of this, Jackie still has little energy and continues to have some nausea. Her appetite has been poor and it is always a struggle to eat.

Jackie's RBC (Hgl) count was 10.0 which was improved from yesterday's 9.7. Her WBC count improved fractionally from 1.7 yesterday to 1.8 today. Her ANC level is still very low. It was at 0.78 today. Her platelets improved a great deal to 142 from yesterday's 118.

So for now we continue to keep our fingers crossed for a visit home. Jackie was making comments about "getting packed up" this evening. I think if she finds the energy she will have everything packed and ready over the next couple of days.

For Annie A, Jackie wanted to say אַ דאַנק and was פֿאַרקלעמפּט when she received the gift from her חבֿרטע

Until Later....

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN