I was Chris' wife/caregiver & this is the medical blog I wrote during his treatment. Short history: dx in July 2010, no initial bone marrow involvement, did 5 rounds hyper-cvad protocol. Found out he is in relapse/refractory status with involvement in his chest, spleen, inguinal & throat lymph nodes, bone marrow, spine & brain in January 2011 when we went to MD Anderson for treatment. The two different rounds of chemo Chris got at MDA could not put him in remission; he died of leukemia/lymphoma on March 18th, 2011, an astonishing and horrific 8 months after his diagnosis.
There is a donation page for organizations here: http://chriscranecancer.blogspot.com

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Chris admitted to hospital for pancytopenia

I took Chris to the ER at about 11 p.m. last night for a fever of 101.3.  He had been feeling pretty terrible all day.  
The staff in the ER moved pretty quickly and the dr. ordered CT scan of his belly, chest xray, blood counts, and urine test.  At about 1:30 a.m. they told him his blood counts and that he would be admitted and need blood transfused.  There are no beds available on 2 central so he is sleeping in an ER room tonight.  
Here are his counts:
Obviously his counts are all very low.  He is also on antibiotics in addition to the blood to get his platelets and counts back up.  His condition is called "pancytopenia" and is basically neutropenia with also having low platelet and hemoglobin levels.  This is the lowest his platelets and hemoglobin have ever been.  Unfortunately this is what the chemo drug, methotrexate, does to his system.  The very first time he had neutropenia was after this type of chemo and it's not altogether surprising.  The B cycle of his chemo regimen, the high dose methotrexate, is the toughest on his system.  
I'm going to get some sleep and head back tomorrow, I will post more updates as more information is available.  

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