Update on Jeff

Hi again friends,

Thanks so much for your prayers, kind words, and thoughts. Jeff is doing much better today. It has been 24 hours without a fever, seems that we did do the right thing by getting to the hospital when we did. The blood and urine cultures came back clean!! Which means he might of had some viral or small bacterial infection but nothing too serious. Neutropenic fever can be quite dangerous if an infection is present as the body can't fight it, but it is also rather common in chemo patients and most of the time it is not life threatening. But, to make sure they do somewhat of a quarantine. Your door must always stay shut, minimal contact, good hand washing by everyone, and if you leave the room you have to wear a mask. They also pump you full of a ton of antibiotics.

I know there were questions about the WBC as we have a few newbies getting ready to start chemo. Normal WBC counts in a healthy adult are about 10, Jeff's was 1.7 when we came in to the hospital, this morning they were 3.4 Jeff was given a drup call Neupogen to help grow more WBCs.

There are two different drugs for low WBC counts. One is fast acting and one is longer acting. So if you end up in the hospital or your oncologists finds you have a low count they can give you Neupogen. Then the next time you have chemo they can give you Neulasta one day after the chemo infusion, this drug will help maintain WBC count.

Thanks again for all of your support, Jeff will most likely go home tomorrow in his new (used) Saab. We had put a down payment on a car earlier in the week and then he got sick so couldn't pick it up. I went and got it today so he can ride home in it tomorrow, he is very excited. He has always wanted a Saab...and now that the company is going under we could afford that for him

Niki