Hospitalization update

Well a lot has happen since Steve's last entry. My children. my sister Virginia and I all met with Dr. Martin for a family conference to go over the transplant procedure in detail and to discuss the risks. Boy, if you want to freak yourself out - really read the consent form they give you before they do any procedure. This procedure is pretty intense, but my best hope of beating this APL.

We were all set with a hospital admission date, until my internal port-a-cath had a problem. The day of the family conference it had leaked and spurted back when the needle was withdrawn from a blood draw. The next day I was red and sore around the site. A call to my local oncologist sent me on a path of dye testing the port and eventually lead to Dr. Martin insistence that it be removed. After a trip to Mt Zion hospital to have it removed -(thank you Alicia for a fun day.) and several days to recover, I had a new admission date of February 9th.

Sheri took me down for what was to be a long day. Early labs and exam at the clinic, a trip in the afternoon to Mt Zion for them to put in a new central line and then hospital admission. Well, at the exam I questioned the results of the CT scan of my lungs that had been order. No copy had been received yet. When the results came in by fax, Dr Martin did not like what he saw and called off the admission until I saw a pulmonary expert at UCSF. So what was to be a long day turned short. Sheri and I had a nice ride home and a great lunch and visit.

Matt took me to the pulmonary visit on that Friday. It appears I have some lung damage from prion chemotherapy. I have a diminish ability for the lung to transfer oxygen to the blood stream. The concern is how much more damage would be done by the transplant procedure. I understand that all patients entering the transplant process have had some lung damage from their prior chemo. I meet with Dr. Martin on February 26th to discuss my case and review my best options.

Thank you all for continuing to check up on me and for all your healing thought. My family and I continue to need them.

Dianne