Ron's doctor had added yesterday's appointment when Ron's skin outbreak continued to progress even with a higher dose of his med for inflammation. Doc Mag said that we're not going to dink around any longer with a small increase in meds. Also, his white blood count had returned to above normal since our return home from his hospitalization December 17-19. After bloodwork here in AA yesterday and his examination, Doctor Mag ordered two infusions "to turn this train around.". His white blood count had continued to rise, and the bloodtest for the BK virus had increased (measured in "copies"--48,000 for you medical background readers). The two infusions are medrol for skin inflammation and cidofovir for the virus. He had a chest xray which did not show pneumonia. Ron is also on a second antibiotic for two weeks for bronchitis-like symptoms. His prednisone was increased from 10 mg daily to 40mg for a week.
They also suspected he was slightly dehydrated which contributed to a 12 pound weight loss since 12 December. He drank A LOT yesterday afternoon and evening and weighed +2 pounds when weighed today. So as a favorite nurse, Kathy, told me when Ron was in the hospital last month: this is the life of a bone marrow transplant survivor. Flare -ups, infections, and bumps in the road are to be expected but will continue to be more spread out, and improvement will continue.
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Hope this medicine "push" helps to get you over the bump! Take care and thinking of you...HUGS! Ned & Terry
ReplyDeleteThank you friends!! Loved your Christmas card with the kids and their families. Never got the photo Christmas cards displayed over the holidays, so a project this week was putting all of them into a scrapbook to keep enjoying.
ReplyDeleteGetting ready to watch the BCS Championship game. We enjoy watching college sports...lots of basketball coming up too.
Ron is definitely responding to his treatment. Have to make some decisions about preventative treatments or not...just treat flare ups and infections if they continue to occur. Chronic graft versus host disease can last 2-5 years with diminishing bumps in the road. Glad I was so clueless when his doc said that it would be a long haul!!!