Hanging Out with ASA and Sarah
Sarah’s platelet counts have not climbed at all yet, so she is still getting an occasional nose bleed and receiving platelet transfusions. The nose bleeds are less intense though and a little easier to stop. Her platelets were the first to drop during transplant pre-conditioning and will probably be the last to come back to normal levels.
More importantly though, Sarah’s Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) was higher today (just what we want to see). She went from 60 (per microliter of blood) on Tuesday to 150 today. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fights infection and is the primary measure of when Sarah is “safe” to come home. Her white blood count (WBC) is also rising and sits at 240 today. Once her WBC hits 300, the doctors will check her ANC count daily. The ANC and white blood cell counts track together pretty closely.
Sarah started retaining fluid sometime after she was admitted into BCH. This was detectable from her daily weight measurements. Not incredibly troubling until yesterday afternoon when she became really puffy around her eyes, cheeks, lips and generally everywhere on her body. Not just a little puffy, but really puffy. At the same time, she developed a fever of ~102.5F and experienced pain in her stomach area, legs and arms. This bothered Susan and me and even more so when the doctors said they were troubled by these symptoms. The Fellow that was working the BMT ward and checked Sarah mentioned the possibility of veno-occlusive desease (VOD) which is a problem with the liver resulting from chemotherapy as part of pre-transplant conditioning. Apparently it’s difficult to diagnose VOD definitively until it’s progressed a lot and even then, there’s not a lot of treatment for it. The Fellow mentioned a fairly new drug they could administer if it turns out to be VOD. The team of doctors don’t think she has VOD though. Sarah’s abdomen is not distended and her bilirubin count is normal. These are two symptoms that are needed to say she has VOD. I’d be lying if I said we aren’t worried though. Sarah did look a little better today (less puffy) and her temperature was only slightly elevated (~99F).
Sarah had a CAT scan of her lungs today to check for anything that might have been missed or was not evident in the x-rays she’s had over the last week. She also had a CAT scan of her head since she was complaining of headaches over the last couple of days too. Initial assessment of the head CAT scan looked clean and the upper area of her right lung looked a little cloudy. We expect to hear more from the doctors after they evaluate the CAT scans more fully tomorrow morning.
I guess it’s sort of a mixed message today, we are seeing signs of transplant engraftment (good news), but Sarah has some mysterious complication (not good news). Sometimes the doctors don’t figure out what causes fevers with the BMT patients and frankly, it will not bother me if we ever know what is causing Sarah’s reactions as long as the reactions go away. Please pray specifically for Sarah’s current complication to subside and for her to stay on track for recovery.
-Ben
More importantly though, Sarah’s Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) was higher today (just what we want to see). She went from 60 (per microliter of blood) on Tuesday to 150 today. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fights infection and is the primary measure of when Sarah is “safe” to come home. Her white blood count (WBC) is also rising and sits at 240 today. Once her WBC hits 300, the doctors will check her ANC count daily. The ANC and white blood cell counts track together pretty closely.
Sarah started retaining fluid sometime after she was admitted into BCH. This was detectable from her daily weight measurements. Not incredibly troubling until yesterday afternoon when she became really puffy around her eyes, cheeks, lips and generally everywhere on her body. Not just a little puffy, but really puffy. At the same time, she developed a fever of ~102.5F and experienced pain in her stomach area, legs and arms. This bothered Susan and me and even more so when the doctors said they were troubled by these symptoms. The Fellow that was working the BMT ward and checked Sarah mentioned the possibility of veno-occlusive desease (VOD) which is a problem with the liver resulting from chemotherapy as part of pre-transplant conditioning. Apparently it’s difficult to diagnose VOD definitively until it’s progressed a lot and even then, there’s not a lot of treatment for it. The Fellow mentioned a fairly new drug they could administer if it turns out to be VOD. The team of doctors don’t think she has VOD though. Sarah’s abdomen is not distended and her bilirubin count is normal. These are two symptoms that are needed to say she has VOD. I’d be lying if I said we aren’t worried though. Sarah did look a little better today (less puffy) and her temperature was only slightly elevated (~99F).
Sarah had a CAT scan of her lungs today to check for anything that might have been missed or was not evident in the x-rays she’s had over the last week. She also had a CAT scan of her head since she was complaining of headaches over the last couple of days too. Initial assessment of the head CAT scan looked clean and the upper area of her right lung looked a little cloudy. We expect to hear more from the doctors after they evaluate the CAT scans more fully tomorrow morning.
I guess it’s sort of a mixed message today, we are seeing signs of transplant engraftment (good news), but Sarah has some mysterious complication (not good news). Sometimes the doctors don’t figure out what causes fevers with the BMT patients and frankly, it will not bother me if we ever know what is causing Sarah’s reactions as long as the reactions go away. Please pray specifically for Sarah’s current complication to subside and for her to stay on track for recovery.
-Ben
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