3 PM Thursday, April 21, 2011

Just a quick post to update you since both doctors have been in.......Dr. Mazur (infectious disease specialist) got the cultures back today - 2 bacterial infections in his blood, which he says are likely related to the PICC line, which is common with those devices.  They pulled the PICC line out today and will use regular IV lines in both arms for the next couple of days to continue round the clock antibiotics (2 different ones) and then use one IV line for PPN (the reduced version of TPN) that is suitable to provide some nutritional support when no central line is available.  If they can sufficiently reduce the blood infections by Saturday, they may be able to inplant another PICC line, which he needs to have before he can go home so he can get back on the TPN formula.  If all goes extremely well, he may be able to go home by the end of the weekend.  His whites are up a little from yesterday - 2.5, and we are happy to see them continuing to climb - Dr. Menco says the Neulasta is gaining ground.

Needless to say, Ed is not a happy camper at the moment being stuck there for at least a couple more days, but it's just required for now.  (Dr. Menco said this happens to about 70% of people who receive the aggressive type of chemo that Ed is getting.)   Ed is scheduled for his next dose of chemo (the ARA-C) on May 2nd.  It's still on back-order as of today, which likely means a 4-day stay in UCLA again if they can allocate some, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will become available in the next week so Ed can get his treatment at Los Robles Hospital  Dr. Menco gets e-mails everyday with status updates and says that it was available from a European manufacturer, but the FDA quashed it for some reason, so they are still waiting for the stateside manufacturer to catch up with the back orders.  He suggested we explore the idea of giving Ed strong antibiotics on a prophylactic basis to try and prevent this infection cycle he's had after each chemo, but it depends on whether Dr. Mazur will agree to it after the next chemo since there are many reasons why its not usually done that way.  We'll have that conversation with Dr. Mazur tomorrow when he comes back on his rounds.

He is eating better today - had some chicken noodle soup, crackers and canned pears for lunch.  He's going to call me later when he decides what he might want for dinner.  He was thinking about his favorite spaghetti from Octavio's in Camarillo.......a bit of a drive, but worth it even if he only eats a few bites!  By Sunday, hopefully he'll feel like eating the chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies he'll find in his basket when he wakes up!

Hope you are all doing well.  If you happen to be driving past Los Robles Hospital and notice a knotted rope of bed sheets hanging from a 2nd floor window of the new wing, call my cell phone right away --- it's probably Ed, trying an UN-Houdini like escape.   I'm bribing the nurses on the floor with Godiva truffles to keep an eye on him when I'm not there, but they do have other patients!