Request for Prayer: November 9, 2009

It has been one of those days (and night). I was awake feeling very poorly all night. I ran a temperature and then would chill. I was very nauseated and had a bad headache.

My family doctor told me to stop by for a CBC and blood cultures. When my regular nurse saw me, she asked the doctor to come see me. The doctor examined me and is concerned. We cannot fathom how I can be taking so many antifungals, antibiotics, and antivirals and be this ill.

She did a flu swab, to err on the safe side, and it was negative (not surprising since I am taking Tamiflu).

She called the ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) specialist in Indianapolis and he agreed to see me today at 4. I went onto the cancer center to receive Day 5 of Neupogen (injections that increase infection fighting neutrophils) and then decided there was no way I could drive myself to Indianapolis. My medical chauffeur, Dad, was called into action.

On the drive to Indianapolis, my family doctor called to tell me I am still neutropenic despite 5 days of Neupogen. And my platelets were 77,000. She wasn't certain what the thresh hold would be for the endoscope to be performed.

The ENT said he would go ahead with the endoscope (scope that goes up through the nose into the sinus cavities) with that platelet level. He sampled from the ethmoid sinus (between the eyes). Not a pleasant experience, but nothing compared to the sinus puncturing procedure I have endured many times. He did not see any sign of invasive fungal involvement, which was a relief since fungal infections in an immune compromised host can become invasive and destroy tissue, erode bone, and other nasty tricks.

However, he is of the same thought that we are - why the infections are not resolving with so many medications. We will have the bacterial cultures back late this week but (as we know) the fungal cultures may take a few weeks.

I am waiting to hear back from my family physician to see what the next step will be - trying at all costs to avoid an admission to the hospital.

Please pray for God to protect me from developing sepsis and for the precise drug to be determined to eradicate these long-lasting infections (almost the entire year of 2009 has been filled with fighting these infections).