Another infection (day 25)

Hello again, I'm just home from the Hotel, where Nancy's sister Janet is spending the evening with her.

Today, Nancy is running a fever, in the 100-101°F range. This is the secondary infection, for which she is already getting antibiotics. Her doctor is phlegmatic...the good news is that her immune system is working, with a somewhat elevated white blood cell count and the fever. The bad news is she has to go through this, and be uncomfortable. I suppose it's also bad news that she has the infection in the first place, but at this point in the journey, we can't afford to look too far backward or forward. It is what it is.

The news about the infections is pretty good. Her original MSSA infection no longer shows up on her daily blood cultures. The new infection is indeed susceptible to the potent antibiotic mix she is getting. She still takes 30mg of prednisone a day, which damps her immune system response, but apparently that is not stopping her immune system from showing up to take on the bad guys. I think this is the first time since the bone marrow transplant when we can stand back and say, yep, the transplant is working the way we want....two months ago, it was starting to attack her (graft vs. host disease), which was expected but not desired.

She's as comfortable as someone with a fever (who can't really talk or move her arms) can be. Also, she is getting some air past her trache tube, so she should be able to talk soon. We watched some football, talked a bit about her fears, I rubbed her aching back and neck. Another one of our dear friends has gifted me with food this evening, so I have the luxury of doing nothing for a few hours. I plan to watch Cal beat Stanford, my first solo TV in four weeks :-)

Oh, and Nancy's kidneys are picking up the pace. She's making about 20ml of urine an hour now, even with all the dialysis. The nephrology doc said, "see, I told you so."

Now I pray for her fever to break. This is a pretty ancient prayer, our ancestors have asked this for millennia. The altars glow in our house.

Love,

-tdc