The Search Continues

Today, at the recommendation of the infectious disease doctors, John is going to be run through the CT scanner. They are going to use radio active isotopes to highlight his neutropenes. Neutropenes are the infection fighter component of his white blood cells. They will take a sample of his blood, infuse it with the isotopes then re-inject his blood. If there is an infection, these cells will congregate at the site of infection and will show up on the CT scan. Infection has not showed up in the blood cultures. If this test returns negative there likely is no infection. Dr. M. says that sometimes transplant patients get fevers simply because the body is working overtime making a new bone marrow. It is important that they are very diligent in the search for infection and rule it totally out of the picture and not make any assumptions because his body needs assistance in fighting any infection.

He is being released from the observation unit. Apparently Dr. M. did want him in this room but feels that he is stable enough and hopefully go into a private room. John has been up and about. Yesterday we went for two long walks around and about the hospital. He is feeling much better.