Diane Jensen: Day 10, fever down and 2 more pints

Friday, December 26, 2014

Day 10, fever down and 2 more pints

So Christmas has come and gone and the fever has come down a little. Yea! Another transfusion today of two pints. She has become our official receiving vampire, although they regularly come in and take a sample of it back. I guess they operate on the principal of give and take. They found in all this that they have added 20 pounds to her in water and now have to try and get it off. Using steroids now to get rid of lumps, bumps and rashes they think were caused by reaction to antibiotics. They have changed the antibiotics to avoid, hopefully, other reactions. She will continue to get antibiotics since her immune system had been wiped out and blood transfusions since she is not making her own because the chemo is killing her bone marrow. Feeling better on the whole and going to try and walk today. Hoping the rashes will leave with the various treatments she gets....this stuff is all over, she recommends you don't try this at home.

3 comments:

CatherineDecember 26, 2014 at 7:06 PM
So glad the fever is down and hopefully that rash goes away soon. That looks bothersome to say the least. We are praying for you every day.
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CarlyDecember 26, 2014 at 9:35 PM
That rash looks painful :( I love that picture of you snuggling that precious baby! What a fun treat! We are praying for you and your family and hope all goes well with your treatments.
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AnonymousDecember 27, 2014 at 6:36 AM
Diane, we continue to pray for you.Suzanne and Joseph
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Diane is very thankful for any well wishes, even if she is not able to respond to all of them.

Diane's MDS Diagnosis

The hospital encourages visits when she is home or inpatient. Call first to insure she feels well enough at any particular time for visiting. Her immune system is severely compromised, so we ask you not to visit with young children or if you are ill. Currently she is an outpatient.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) is a bone marrow disease much like cancer. If left untreated, it will eventually lead to the failure of the bone marrow (requiring transfusions) or Leukemia.

The only way to prevent this is undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Presently, her blast counts are increasing faster than expected but have not reached the level of Leukemia. Her blood counts are lower now and she has had a transfusion to help with this. She is to proceed with the bone marrow transplant now because of how rapidly the MDS is progressing.

Diane will enter the LDS Hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit on Wednesday, December 17^th. She will undergo alternating rounds of chemotherapy for about 2 weeks. The chemotherapy will kill the blood producing cells, as well as her immune system.

Once the blast counts are reduced enough, then Diane will receive a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant. Diane’s sister, Tracey, is a half match and is to be the stem cell donor. However, effort is still underway to get a full match in time for the transfusion. The purpose of the transplant is to have the healthy stem cells replace the unhealthy ones killed by the chemotherapy (in the bone marrow). Once the transplant is done she will be on medicine to prevent rejection for some time (estimated 6 months to a year).

Mid term bone marrow biopsy coming up on (day 17) Friday, Jan. 2 nd. Find out if more chemo might be needed after the results of that test come back. Then another biopsy about day 35. Transplant could take place around day 42 the doctor said.

At this time (June 30) no transplant is scheduled. The disease became active again about mid June. Her blast numbers increased rapidly within just a weekend. Had they been able to do transplant (June 8) it would NOT have been successful, and she would have gone thru much trama for nothing. She has started another round of chemo aimed at controlling the MDS to lower blast levels.

Both the chemotherapy and the stem cell transfusion will be very hard on Diane. We ask for your prayers of strength and comfort on her behalf.

This site will be updated with Diane’s progress.