Medical Update

Terry hasn't been feeling very well the last few weeks - he has been suffering with a recurring series of symptoms such as; intense aching, chilling/trembling, fever, some vomiting, lack of energy - it wipes him out for a couple days or more.  

We went to the doctor on the 2nd of July, got an antibiotic and thought it might be under control, but it's happening again. 

Our oncologist called Tuesday evening to report on what she heard from SCCA about the transplant. That was a bad day for Terry, so I told her how he was feeling.   We set up an appointment for the next morning. 

The lab results from Wednesday's visit:
WBC = 4.7 (it's normal - it hasn't been normal for a long time. We have a record of the last 6 draws and they are all low.)
RBC = 3.57(L)
Platelet = 31(L)
Neutrophils = 1.7(L) (this is low still, but higher than it has been for a long time.) 

I don't mean to sound ungrateful or negative, but there has been no rhyme or reason for Terry's counts the last few years, so we cannot explain why the WBC is normal and the Neutrophils are higher than the last several months have been.  We do know that we will not expect them to stay normal or better, because past experience shows us that they will not, but we are grateful for the occasional good report.

Dr. Smith called this evening with the results of the other testing they did to check for infection in the blood - they drew blood from his arm and from his line, and found that an infection is present in both.  We wish he didn't have an infection but we are glad that it did show up so that we know what to do about it.  He is currently on a stronger dose of antibiotic and for a longer period of time, and we hope that it takes care of it this time so he can begin to feel better. 

Note - the report from SCCA is pretty much the same as what we mentioned in the previous post - mid to late September for transplant, with some sort of treatment to lower the CLL counts before treatment.  However, we must clear up this infection before starting any other treatment.