Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Update # 128
19 Months
Good Afternoon,
Summer is more than halfway over and the days are heating up. That means school must be getting closer.
Ken and I took a little vacation time to visit the Haupts in Chicago. Their remodeling project, that kept expanding from the tornado damage last Aug., turned out beautifully. We helped them clean some things and get shelving units ready for storage. We then headed to Kansas City for a few days of relaxation but that trip was cut short a few days since Jeff was heading down from Iowa.
Jeff had a couple of dental procedures the month of July and the dentists always have him take antibiotics before he sees them. They always prescribe another week's worth of antibiotics for Jeff to take after each visit.
Saturday, the 19th, Jeff still happened to be on one of these antibiotics when he noticed a low grade fever. He did not feel quite up to par and still had a slight fever so on Monday the 21st Jeff went in to see Dr. Masri in Waterloo. He did a CBC and gave Jeff a bag of IV fluids. The white count was up some so we knew something was going on even though the fever did end that day.
On Wednesday, Dr. Masri called Jeff with the results of a couple of the blood tests. They were also a little high and he thought it might be a flare up of the GVHD. We then called down to StL to see if Dr. DiPersio wanted to wait till Aug. 11th to see Jeff. Yes, Jeff should be seen sooner so they scheduled him in for yesterday, Monday the 28th.
Jeff commented that his slight sometimes cough had now been increasing since Friday the 25th. Dr. DiPersio had a chest x-ray and CT Scan done on Jeff. The CBC showed the white count had again slightly risen but was consistent with an infection. He was thinking it was related to the dental work. They immediately began Jeff on a different antibiotic yesterday while he was there. The nurse practitioner just now called today with the results of the scan. Both the x-ray and scan show Jeff clear of pneumonia so that's good.
They think Jeff's body could just be out of whack from the dental work. Or it could be a little of GVHD. Jeff is to complete this antibiotic plus increase his Prednisone for two weeks. StL then wants Dr. Masri in Waterloo to take a CBC and send them the results. The nurse practitioner in StL wants to talk to Jeff after they see the lab work. She figures Jeff should be back on track and be able to decrease his Prednisone to the normal level. If Jeff continues to have any problems, they may want Jeff to return to StL in 6 or 8 weeks.
Jeff's Aug. 11th appointment in StL was therefore cancelled. We did go ahead and make his two-year post transplant appointment for Monday, Dec. 15th. They checked the date of that Dec. conference that Dr. DiPersio attends so we won't have to worry about rescheduling times this year.
Jeff will be heading back home to Iowa this evening. We're thankful that this is just a minor thing that works itself out so Jeff returns to normal. Please continue your prayers for him during this process. Our prayers are with you all and especially those of you who are dealing with issues in your own families.
I guess I'll update in a couple of weeks after the next blood work. Hopefully, it will be short and sweet. Take care and enjoy this summer weather.
love,
Marcia