Saturday, October 02, 2010

1 Oct - No Chemo Again

Well, we went to see the doc treating Sarah's C.Diff. this week and were surprised to discover that she tested positive for C.Diff. again - so, now Sarah's taking the other antibiotic called Vancomicin. She's still slowly losing weight, and her oncologist doesn't want to give her chemo while she has an active C.Diff. infection - so it is very important to get this to clear up.
Overall, Sarah is struggling to improve. Trying to build strength, but her body's reduced nutritional absorption (due to C.Diff) and worsening neuropathy make it a challenge. She's eating fairly well but it just goes right through her body because of damage to the lining in the intestines. Over the next week we'll be anxiously watching whether the C.Diff. starts to go away. Not likely she'll get chemo next Thursday but we are going to talk to the doc about the overall chemo treatment plan for when she can resume it.
On the bright side, Sarah's bilirubin level came down from 2.8 to 1.8 which is good, and her tumor markers are only up a little bit from the last check despite intermittent chemo treatments.

4 comments:

Jennifer/Jeff/Erica said...

hopefully the C diff will clear up soon with the new antibiotic. you are in our thoughts

Jessica said...

Sorry to hear about the C diff returning. That must be frustrating. Hope the vancomycin does the trick.

Anonymous said...

Thinking of you often. Hopefully the C. Diff will be under control soon. Great news about the bilirubin.

Paige and Trey

Eone Moore Beck said...

Prayers. Alan, I am coming to Chicago next Friday and doing the Urbanathlon in Sarah's honor. I would like to come by and sit with her for however long is okay with y'all on Sunday, the 17th. My cell is 804.317.8510. I'm staying at the Embassy Suites downtown.