CD Member in Hospital

[ChrisH]

It's been a quiet week in Cedars-Sinai...

Karen spent most of last week undergoing tests to see if she was a suitable candidate for an experimental treatment. The new treatment has had good results and takes just 2 days vs 2 weeks for the standard cyclosporin treatment. She was pretty excited about being able to participate. BUT... she failed one of the last tests. This was a severe disappointment.

So Friday they put in an additional PIC line and started the cyclosporin treatment. Yesterday when we visited she was very tired and not quite with it. Probably due to the medications. Hopefully it is one of those getting sicker before you get better sort of things. They are monitoring her blood very closely and adjusting her dosages daily. She is hooked up to an infusion pump 24 hours a day and has to drag around her "ball and chain" everywhere she goes, not that she is going very far for a while yet.

The good news is that her blood sugar levels are more stable and they haven't had to give her insulin shots for a day or two. The bad news is that she needed a blood trasfusion to keep up with what she is losing.

She still doesn't have access to e-mail, unless you send it through me. I'll be happy to deliver anything I get. She also has a phone and if you want to call PM me and I can give you the number but I don't think just posting it is a good idea.

Thanks for all your prayers

ChrisH