Monday +245 (Evening) From Rochester

Jackie was miserable today. On a scale of 1 to 10 she was about a 3 today. She continued to have nausea and abdominal distress. Of course all this and she was forced to: A. Give blood for a CBC; B. Do a head CT scan; C. Do a full body CT scan. So it wasn't her best day. The good news is that we know part of the reason she is feeling bad. She is again positive for C-Diff (Clostridium Difficile...want to know more? http://www.cdiffsupport.com/aboutcdiff.html). This is likely the cause of much of her gastrointestinal difficulty. It could also explain the fever, certainly the nausea, and possibly the high WBC count.

Today her fever ran to almost 103 at times. Due to the fact that her WBC count and ANC level is very high the docs elected to let her immune system fight off whatever bugs might be causing the fever/possible infection. At least to me this seems like a good sign they feel her system is finally developing to the point where it can handle routine problems without help from IV antibiotics, pills, and various and sundry other noxious potions and incantations!

Tomorrow morning she will have a bone marrow biopsy. She has had several of these before and they can be somewhat painful after the event. So...I until the effects of the biopsy and the C-Diff meds kick in I think she will continue to feel lousy. I think by the end of the week she will begin to show good progress, however.

Until Later....

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN