Margy Admitted for Fever

On Wednesday and Thursday, Margy was feeling a bit more run down with body aches and a headache. We were keeping a close eye on her temperature at home. In the early evening on Thursday, she had a temp of 100.6, so we called her doctors and they instructed us to come to the hospital immediately for admission and IV antibiotics.

Bone Marrow Transplant patients are extremely susceptible to infection, especially at this stage when they essentially have no immune system. So, any sign of possible infection needs immediate attention because it can be life threatening. A simple cold or sniffle for you or I could be detrimental to a transplant patient, which is why we have had to limit the number of people who come in contact with Margy and we are constantly disinfecting everything. Margy has to wear a mask every time she leaves the apartment in order to help protect her. Germs are the enemy!

Back to the story.....

Luckily, her fever broke on Thursday night and has not returned. They did blood and urine cultures, a CT scan of the chest to check for pneumonia, and they were considering a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. Luckily, Margy's fever and headache went away so quickly and she perked up so nicely by Friday morning that they deferred on performing the spinal tap. She continues to get IV antibiotics in the hospital, and the plan is for her to be discharged back to the apartment with IV antibiotics at least until her white blood cells are at an adequate level.

It was comforting to know ahead of time that virtually all transplant patients get a fever at some point and need to be admitted in order to check for infection. We continue to pray for engraftment of the donor marrow, and we are praying for no more fevers or hospital admissions!