Rest required.

Facebook update: (3/22/11)
"Asking for prayers for Dixie Wolfe. In her own words she had "a hard day today". Spiking fevers of 103+ again (has been on and off all week) and a rash that's now covering her body (red and itchy). Prayers that these symptoms subside ASAP. She's not comfortable at all right now and having trouble sleeping because of the fevers.Thanks ...Team! I'll try to get a blog with updates up in the next day or two."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well since the transfusion of my NK cells last week it's been quite the roller coaster ride for mom. She started out day "0" (when she received the NK cells) with shakes ("rigors") and chills. And has progressed to fevers ranging between upper 90's and 104 (yesterday's temp). Though she had managed to keep it down for 1/2 of Monday when I went to visit her.

***correction: apparently mom's temp got up to 105.1 but was down to 101 by this afternoon when I checked in with my sister***

She stated over the phone yesterday that it'd be a "hard day". Her nausea has gotten to the point of being sick, where as during all of her chemo rounds (including this last one) she'd been able to keep her stomach in check. So prayers that the Interleuken-2 (IL-2) lets up a bit on her stomach so she can get a bit more nutrition into her body. Her mood is good, though she's slept the majority the last 36 hours, with the exception of when the times when the fevers are running high.

Unfortunately the fevers are a side effect and can only be treated with Tylenol. She also, on Thursday, developed a nasty red and itchy rash all over her body and because of her current treatment is only able to receive steroid cream instead of IV, because of her current treatment. So over all her body is responding, unfortunately the side effects are to be expected. (http://www.chemocare.com/BIO/il_2.asp)

Ali and I, along with a few family friends, are working on cleaning up the house in hopes that if she gets through this treatment and her counts come back, she might be able to be home for a bit before heading back in for transplant.

For those of you who are not medically knowledgeable, like myself, I will spend a bit of time translating here. I know I've explained the NK cells and IL-2, but the goal of this treatment is to get mom into "remission". In other words get the Leukemia out of her system/so beaten down that her system is weak enough to have the stem cells from a double cord blood transplant transfused into her system. Basically beat her blood cells to a pulp long enough for her body to be reset with new cells from another source. This would basically jump start her system and when the cells are recognized by her body and begin replicating the new cells (engraftment) she would not only be re-enforcing the remission from cancer, but also removing the genetic mutations that have caused her two blood disorders (Mylodisplastic and Myelopoliferative Disorders). Start from scratch and work up from there while establishing a whole new system within herself.


Planning on a Q & A session and/or blog next so if you have any questions please send me an email.