First 100 Days

Well ... on May 5th when we learned that Barb had Leukemia, we didn't expect that 100 days later, she still wouldn't be ready for the stem cell bone marrow transplant.

This morning her lead doctor said that she is pulling together Barb’s doctors (oncology, hematology, pulmonary, infectious disease, periodontal, transplant, etc) to review next steps.

On the one hand, it is considered too risky to have a stem cell transplant while a patient has an infection (usually – but not always - indicated by a fever). On the other hand, the recent tests don’t show conclusively that her current fevers are due to an infection. Also, her strong antibiotic, antifungal and antiviral drugs should kill off any infection – if an infection is the cause of the fevers.

Regarding drug-induced fevers, they have tried alternating some drugs, but they can’t take her off all of the drugs that could be causing fevers. The bone marrow stimulant, which is a “suspect”, is time-released and won’t be out of her system for another 1-2 weeks.

She still has a long haul, so we're continuing to keep our chins up. Hopefully, next week, the fevers will be completely gone and/or we’ll have a new course to deal with them.