Only a few days after being released from the Sarasota hospital, Carol was having mild fevers on and off.
Once they reached over 100.5 I called Moffitt and was told to bring her directly to the BMT floor where she was immediately admited.
She is now being tested to identify the source of her fevers. Tomorrow morning she will finally have the postponed biopsy.
Thank you.
Jaime
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Minor update – Carol is back home
Carol was admitted to Sarasota Memorial Hospital last Thursday due to a spike in her temperature. Being neutropenic (insufficient white cells to fight infections) she had to spend 7 days receiving antibiotics via IV’s to get her fever under control.
Now we are home with her fever gone. I will be administering her antibiotics via IV for another 2 weeks (+/-)
The bone morrow biopsy was rescheduled at Moffitt for next Monday the 31st and a visit with Dr. Tomblyn was rescheduled for Friday the 4th.
Then we should find out the biopsy results and discuss future treatment.
I will update in a few days.
Thank you.
Jaime
Now we are home with her fever gone. I will be administering her antibiotics via IV for another 2 weeks (+/-)
The bone morrow biopsy was rescheduled at Moffitt for next Monday the 31st and a visit with Dr. Tomblyn was rescheduled for Friday the 4th.
Then we should find out the biopsy results and discuss future treatment.
I will update in a few days.
Thank you.
Jaime
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Bumpy road
Carol needed to be admitted to Sarasota Memorial Hospital early Thursday morning after she developed a high fever during the night. The doctor on call at Moffitt suggested I take her to the local emergency room instead of driving all the way to Tampa in her condition.
Since she continues having sporadic high fevers and her blood counts remain lower than the minimum required to be released we are still at Sarasota Memorial for at least another couple of days until her condition improves.
The bone morrow biopsy and follow up appointments with Dr. Tomblyn scheduled for tomorrow at Moffitt will need to be rescheduled for a later time to give Carol an opportunity to recover from this bump on the road.
On the lighter side, Carol’s cousin Freddie was visiting during this time. They managed to do a few fun things just for a couple of days before Carol was admitted. Carol felt pretty bad that for the last few days of her visit they weren’t able to go to the places they planned and enjoy walks on the beach but with the hospital stay limitation they had a chance to spend some time together.
Cousins Richard and Cathy Diamond had planned a bird watching trip to Myakka Park and they took advantage to visit Carol on Friday along with Freddie. Their visit lifted all our spirits.
Today Cathy Lankenau came over to visit Carol for a little while, followed by Sybil and Jay later in the afternoon.
So for now Carol is at the Sarasota Memorial Hospital and looking forward to going home soon.
Thank you again to everyone for all your support.
I Will try to update you soon.
Jaime
Since she continues having sporadic high fevers and her blood counts remain lower than the minimum required to be released we are still at Sarasota Memorial for at least another couple of days until her condition improves.
The bone morrow biopsy and follow up appointments with Dr. Tomblyn scheduled for tomorrow at Moffitt will need to be rescheduled for a later time to give Carol an opportunity to recover from this bump on the road.
On the lighter side, Carol’s cousin Freddie was visiting during this time. They managed to do a few fun things just for a couple of days before Carol was admitted. Carol felt pretty bad that for the last few days of her visit they weren’t able to go to the places they planned and enjoy walks on the beach but with the hospital stay limitation they had a chance to spend some time together.
Cousins Richard and Cathy Diamond had planned a bird watching trip to Myakka Park and they took advantage to visit Carol on Friday along with Freddie. Their visit lifted all our spirits.
Today Cathy Lankenau came over to visit Carol for a little while, followed by Sybil and Jay later in the afternoon.
So for now Carol is at the Sarasota Memorial Hospital and looking forward to going home soon.
Thank you again to everyone for all your support.
I Will try to update you soon.
Jaime
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The waiting game
That was what Dr. Tomblyn proposed to Carol this past Monday. Wait until the end of January for another bone morrow biopsy.
Basically another bone morrow biopsy will be done by the end of this month so we can find out if the donor cells are also attacking Carol’s Leukemia cells, aside from last month’s very acute reaction on her skin that caused her to be readmitted to Moffitt for 6 days.
In theory, if the previous bone morrow biopsy was done while the donor cells were in the midst of causing such a reaction on her skin, Dr. Tomblyn’s opinion is that we probably should have postponed the biopsy to allow the donor cells to attack the most needed area. Carol’s bone morrow.
So, in the meanwhile, we are playing the waiting game, regular “biweekly” visits to her local oncologist for lab work until the 24th.
And talking about lab work. For the past weeks Carol’s blood counts for the white, red and platelets stayed +/- level. This past Monday her lab work showed a little increase on the platelets count, reaching 40. It’s not a huge increase, but since this is possibly a sign that Carol is making some of the platelets on her own, it is very encouraging.
One new discomfort area is now in Carol’s thighs and knees. It seems that there is some donor cells ongoing activity in the femur bones that could cause occasional aching pain. With Dr. Tomblyn’s approval, a couple of Tylenol pills can be taken to help with the pain, but only occasionally, otherwise there is a risk of masking a fever.
The past couples of weeks have been pretty busy with family visiting from far and close.
Cousin David flew in from Seattle to stay for a few days, Frankie and Sandy drove in from Boca to visit both, Carol and also David.
Cousin Howard and Gabriella from Colorado visited while in the area for a trade show.
Cousin Freddie is due to arrive to SRQ this afternoon for a week long visit.
Thank you again for all the calls, cards and emails giving Carol tons of encouragement.
Jaime
Basically another bone morrow biopsy will be done by the end of this month so we can find out if the donor cells are also attacking Carol’s Leukemia cells, aside from last month’s very acute reaction on her skin that caused her to be readmitted to Moffitt for 6 days.
In theory, if the previous bone morrow biopsy was done while the donor cells were in the midst of causing such a reaction on her skin, Dr. Tomblyn’s opinion is that we probably should have postponed the biopsy to allow the donor cells to attack the most needed area. Carol’s bone morrow.
So, in the meanwhile, we are playing the waiting game, regular “biweekly” visits to her local oncologist for lab work until the 24th.
And talking about lab work. For the past weeks Carol’s blood counts for the white, red and platelets stayed +/- level. This past Monday her lab work showed a little increase on the platelets count, reaching 40. It’s not a huge increase, but since this is possibly a sign that Carol is making some of the platelets on her own, it is very encouraging.
One new discomfort area is now in Carol’s thighs and knees. It seems that there is some donor cells ongoing activity in the femur bones that could cause occasional aching pain. With Dr. Tomblyn’s approval, a couple of Tylenol pills can be taken to help with the pain, but only occasionally, otherwise there is a risk of masking a fever.
The past couples of weeks have been pretty busy with family visiting from far and close.
Cousin David flew in from Seattle to stay for a few days, Frankie and Sandy drove in from Boca to visit both, Carol and also David.
Cousin Howard and Gabriella from Colorado visited while in the area for a trade show.
Cousin Freddie is due to arrive to SRQ this afternoon for a week long visit.
Thank you again for all the calls, cards and emails giving Carol tons of encouragement.
Jaime
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Hello My Dear Family & Friends
Although, I have to admit, going home was almost as frightening as going into the hospital, I am SO happy to be home and have my freedom, my surroundings, bed, food and husband, back. I have been healing and getting stronger every day, rash is gone…that’s a miracle!! No more fevers or any other of the problems I went in for, or got, while I was there.
I do wish this had happened at a different time. Alexia, Trevor & Isabella did not get to share with us, the stay-cation we had all envisioned. They were, however, most supportive and more than good sports about having to drive an hour to Moffitt every day where none of us could enjoy Trevor fishing or Bella running around on the beach collecting shells and making castles. I am very in awe of their sweetness & dedication, and help making me feel better, getting things and food to me and just being the best medicine there could have been during that time.
This past Monday I had my normally scheduled appointment with Dr. Tomblyn at Moffitt (I went without my suitcase and made sure to have my precious yoga class). She was very pleased, as are we, that I was doing so well and was anxious to share my blood work results of that day. My white counts had gone from .39 on the 30th to .69 on the 3rd by themselves, as they cannot be transfused. My hemoglobin was holding and so were my platelets. My albumin took a big leap as well (hospital food vs. home cooking) so my nutrition is also on the rise. Due to these results, my doctor told Jaime could stop administering IV antibiotics around the clock and I may or may not need another round of Vidaza (chemotherapy). Also, that it may have been too soon for that frightful biopsy.
Tomorrow, Thursday, I will go to Dr. Chu’s office for my scheduled blood work and hope to see rising numbers. My take is that there was a war waged last week. My donor’s cells became strong enough, after being off all the immune suppressing medications, to fight the Leukemia cells. Sunday I felt peace in my body and I’ve been feeling stronger ever since. Today I even power walked to my normal tunes!
Exceptional Thanks, to my husband who doesn’t leave my side until he knows I’m safe and who cares for me no matter what the circumstances are, and they have not been pretty. And to all who have kept in touch, visited, listened & loved. Thank you.
I look forward to cousin David arriving Sunday for a few days from Seattle followed by Freddie coming from Cape Cod for a whole week after that!
Carol
I do wish this had happened at a different time. Alexia, Trevor & Isabella did not get to share with us, the stay-cation we had all envisioned. They were, however, most supportive and more than good sports about having to drive an hour to Moffitt every day where none of us could enjoy Trevor fishing or Bella running around on the beach collecting shells and making castles. I am very in awe of their sweetness & dedication, and help making me feel better, getting things and food to me and just being the best medicine there could have been during that time.
This past Monday I had my normally scheduled appointment with Dr. Tomblyn at Moffitt (I went without my suitcase and made sure to have my precious yoga class). She was very pleased, as are we, that I was doing so well and was anxious to share my blood work results of that day. My white counts had gone from .39 on the 30th to .69 on the 3rd by themselves, as they cannot be transfused. My hemoglobin was holding and so were my platelets. My albumin took a big leap as well (hospital food vs. home cooking) so my nutrition is also on the rise. Due to these results, my doctor told Jaime could stop administering IV antibiotics around the clock and I may or may not need another round of Vidaza (chemotherapy). Also, that it may have been too soon for that frightful biopsy.
Tomorrow, Thursday, I will go to Dr. Chu’s office for my scheduled blood work and hope to see rising numbers. My take is that there was a war waged last week. My donor’s cells became strong enough, after being off all the immune suppressing medications, to fight the Leukemia cells. Sunday I felt peace in my body and I’ve been feeling stronger ever since. Today I even power walked to my normal tunes!
Exceptional Thanks, to my husband who doesn’t leave my side until he knows I’m safe and who cares for me no matter what the circumstances are, and they have not been pretty. And to all who have kept in touch, visited, listened & loved. Thank you.
I look forward to cousin David arriving Sunday for a few days from Seattle followed by Freddie coming from Cape Cod for a whole week after that!
Carol
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