Smart Mouth

So, Stac had a platelet transfusion yesterday and we were SO convinced that her numbers would go up again, we were even making bets about how high it would be.  We were pretty devastated when it went down from 18 to 16 instead.  Then she had another transfusion last night and it went from 16 to 17 (again, this is in thousands so 16 = 16,000), then another transfusion this morning and it went from 17 to 11.  This morning when the doctor came in he was talking about Platelet Refractoriness, this is when the body identifies the transfused platelets as being foreign to the body and it develops antibodies to attack them.  This is a rare occurrence, but it would explain what is happening.

So, what they can do is called cross matching… this is where they test the donor blood against hers, to determine compatibility.  There is a kind of platelets called HLA, that is the kind that is a perfect match for Stacey… but for some reason, those don’t work for her.  So, they think that there must be a certain kind of antibody that works well for her… but it really hard to determine that.

She is getting another transfusion right now, and this time they are gonna take her count 15 minutes after the transfusion is done.  Usually they take it about an hour afterward, to give it time to move around (there was a more technical word they used, but I didn’t write it down so I can’t remember it) but this time they want to take it sooner to see if it is doing anything.  (like whether it goes up initially and then goes down, or if it doesn’t go up at all)

But otherwise she felt great today… hardly any pain even when she coughed.  And in pretty good spirits.

She has got a bunch of e mail messages (through the hospital) and she LOVES those… so keep em coming!

*updated at 8:55pm*  The numbers came back tonight at 15,000.  So, they went up 4,000 at least.  So, WOOT for that!  She will be getting any transfusion soon, either tonight or tomorrow morning.