Monday +111 (Morning) w/Afternoon update

Jackie received a mid-week set of blood counts last week. The results were mixed. Her RBC count dropped from 10.8 to 10.5. Her WBC count dropped to 1.7, but her ANC count moved upward and was at .500. This count makes her marginally neutropenic. Fortunately she has not experienced any neutropenic fevers. Her platelets improved to 102.

For most of the week she felt fine. However on Saturday and Sunday she experienced a high level of nausea with vomiting on Sunday. In fact, she felt as badly as she did at +20 or +30. Today she feels better, however.

I really feel that since the Cyclosporine is being tapered she is experiencing some GvHD in her stomach and gut. I think that was the case before the taper and was the cause for her nausea, etc. As the anti-rejection drugs are tapered it makes the likelihood of GvHD a real possibility. Hopefully her body will adjust and the nausea will subside.

She receives another CBC today. Hopefully her numbers will be up. Without the growth factor shots there is a strong possibility they will be down. We return to Rochester at the end of this week for doctor's visits and blood tests. It is possible they will remove her central line, but with her counts still very low I don't have high hopes for this happening. Of course leaving the line in also presents problems as line infections are very common. As with the whole process this is a delicate balancing act.

UPDATE: jackie just got blood tests back from this morning. In spite of what I thought might happen her counts improved (for the most part) a great deal! her RBC (Hgl) rose to 11.8 from 10.5. Her WBC count rose to 2.9 from 1.7 with her ANC gong to 1.6 (1600) from .5 (500). her platelets retreated a little to 89 from last week's 102. All-in-all a good report. We look forward to the day when these numbers "hold" and don't fluctuate so much!

Until later...

Bruce and Jackie
From Pryor