Chicken Curry

Tuesday 10 April

Lara had a rough night, with fever peaking at 39C around five in the morning. She called me, slightly panicky. At around seven o'clock, when she called me again, the fever was down to just over 37C (which is still elevated by Lara's personal standard). Her CRP was down to around 12 (should be < 1)

She feels weak being both aplastic and anemic (low on red and no white blood cells). The nurse had to help her wash; couldn't hack it herself. Her eyes are droopy like those of a little kid with a big flu and she covered herself with a double blanket. When I left around 7:30PM, her fever was up again to 38C and she was shivering. 

One of her antibiotics (Glindamycin) has been withdrawn and substituted by Targocid (you can Google it if you want). She keeps the Ceftazidim. If she keeps her fever tomorrow, they will do a lung scan to check if there are any mushrooms growing in her lungs. No movement in the leukocyte department.

Her appetite being non existent, I helped myself to chicken curry and rice. Quite tasty actually. In between we solved the Jumble in the Herald Tribune. She won.

Her treating physician is back from vacation and Lara discussed with her this afternoon the prospects of her treatment (Cytosar plus or minus Vosaroxin). We are discussing with a leukemia specialist in Seattle what the pros and cons of the present protocol is and what and where we might find as alternatives. The doctor will contact Alan Burnett in Oxford (whom we had asked for advice several times last year, too) and solicit his views. Prospects are rather tight in Lara's case. Her morale is being tested.