Friday Medical Update

Today's neutrophil count: 0.17. Good news because that is double from yesterday!

I still have pneumonia, but my breathing is sounding better. I'm still on all the anti-drugs (biotic, fungal, viral) and the associated meds to keep me from getting sick from those. Yesterday afternoon, those somehow got off schedule and I had an episode of severe nausea, throwing up, etc., but have been back on track since.

This morning I woke up feeling better and had been awaiting platelets for several hours. When they finally sent some up, they were from an A+ donor. My blood type is O+. Type is not supposed to be an issue with platelets, but we have noticed that I have reactions to A and B platelets at least half the time. Today, of course, I had a reaction. And it started within 5 minutes of the transfusion starting. Before when I've had a reaction, it's been near to the end of or right after a transfusion. When I have a reaction I turn red and big welts appear all over me, particularly my face, arms, and legs. Mike stopped the platelets while I was calling the nurse. I had been premedicated with Tylenol and Benadryl, but that didn't help this time. They gave me Solumedrol and monitored my vitals for an hour.


All this was about 10:30. I'm pretty much back to normal now and they have ordered ABO matched platelets for me. It's now 3:00 and they just started the new transfusion. I premedicated again, this time with 50 mg IV Benadryl. I am begining to get very sleepy. They'll be doing something called HLA matching, but that won't happen until next week. In the meanwhile I will keep my fingers crossed for Os.

So now for the bigger news. It's official. I am definitely on the path to a bone marrow transplant. My hemotolgist has talked with the director of the transplant unit at Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute. and as soon as I am well enough to get out of here, I will see the transplant guy and proceed from there.