Diane Jensen: Day 28, progressing along, coughing, blood and fever....

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Day 28, progressing along, coughing, blood and fever....

Late yesterday she got another blood transfusion. As I Was coming to the hospital today, the American Red Cross was out front delivering blood products. If I could have caught the delivery person I would have gone over to thank them for what they do. In fact, thanks, to those of you who can donate blood. The sign up list went around the quorum this past Sunday and it had new meaning to see it. So far, Diane has received about ten or so pints in transfusion. These have been life saving since she has not been able to make her own blood. She received another transfusion of platelets just this afternoon. The coughing has not improved much and they're working on that, but the chest x-ray shows her lungs and pneumonia are doing better. The cough is wearing her out. Her bones hurt as the numbers increase while she makes white cells, beginnings of rebuilding an immune system. Tonight she again has a fever (100.5), we didn't want to see that again. Once they start the Vidaza chemo, that will knock the immune system down again. Visits from friends continue to improve her spirits. .....

2 comments:

wendy smedleyJanuary 13, 2015 at 7:15 PM
Diane,
We love you, and are so thankful for all those who have donated blood, wow way to find the good.
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wendy smedleyJanuary 13, 2015 at 7:17 PM
Oh and by the way if you need some laughs, this is one of my favorite humor blogs, http://www.cakewrecks.com/
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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.