Get Me Outa Here!

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the lack of updates - it's been a bit of a frustrating week. After Eric was admitted to the inpatient BMT ward last week with a fever, the parainfluenza virus that has been making the rounds at the hospital became a serious concern for several BMT patients. Of course any infection or virus is very serious (and potentially fatal) for those with a compromised immune system. As a result of the virus, the BMT program shut down their outpatient clinics and all transplant patients had to be either inpatient or well enough to be completely discharged to the regular weekly clinic follow up program. This change kept Eric in the hospital to complete his IV antibiotics...

I hate the idea that he is stuck in isolation on a ward where we know patients have come down with this virus. The hospital did a major re-organization of the ward to ensure those who were not struck by the virus had every isolation technique in play to avoid exposure. I am really not sure where those with the virus have gone -- but anyone who had any kind of a cough seems to have been moved - hoping that all are okay. Access to the floor has been severely limited (this is already a tightly controlled environment), additional staff brought in, there are enough masks, gloves, gowns and Purell to sink a ship and the tension permeates the entire floor. You get the picture -- it just hasn't been a very pleasant place to be....

They also gave him a dose of IVIG to provide some passive immunity. He had a nasty reaction to the IVIG but recovered fast. We are very grateful that his original fever never seemed to re-occur and no infection was found. Likewise, we are grateful that he has been able to avoid the parainfluenza virus. But, wow -- will we be glad to see the end of the hospital! Expecting he will be outa there tomorrow.

Other than the hospital frustrations, Eric continues to do well. His blood counts are slowly rising (counts rise more slowly when marrow is used rather than peripheral stem cells) and the musositis has resolved itself. Nothing tastes good but he eats and drinks through the day. Tough to get enough calories in (especially with hospital food). It really paid off for him to be in such good shape with extra weight going into the transplant. Waiting to do this transplant was a good plan. I know that this would have been much harder last spring when he was still recuperating from chemo regimens and that infection.

That's it, that's all!