Wednesday, August 23, 2006

PRA update

Hi everyone:

Patty received a call moments ago from Cathy Murks, the transplant coordinator at University of Chicago Hospital. The latest round of PRA results came in. Although the one class of PRA has dropped from 44 to 7 percent (and from 65 originally), the other class has only dropped to 92 percent (it was 94 last time, and 100 originally.) So, although there has been some progress, it has not been the slam dunk we had hoped for as yet.

The transplant team plans to test Patty's PRA again in two weeks, in the hope the IVIG and Cytoxan will have established a more meaningful dent in the higher number. Cathy speculated that Dr. Fedson would want to hold off on advising about transplanting against crossmatch until after those PRA results are available.

Patty is feeling fairly sad and discouraged about these results, as am I. I feel terrible for her, because I know that much of the suffering she's endured for weeks and weeks relates directly to the medications designed to bring these numbers down. To have only very slightly opened the door to a possible transplant is a somewhat bitter pill to swallow.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Patty continues to feel pretty ill and fatigued today, although she is grateful not to have vomited so far.

Love,
Brian

P.S. This really, really, really blows.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Paty and Brian, Even though we don't see each other at work all the time Patty, I read you blog everyday and root for you. We should get shirts that read TEAM PATTY on them. I really feel for what the both of you are going through and even though I can't really know how awful it must get, I appreciate the raw honesty of Brian's entries. Your whole family is in my thoughts and prayers. Love, Debbie Burgess