No One Fights Alone

On October 22, 2015 by Michelle Love

BJ developed a fever of 101.5 last night, and was directly admitted to the hospital. We got here about 12:30 this morning. He didn’t sleep much after that, but he is sleeping now. His doctor thinks that this fever is due to how his body is processing the killing of leukemia cells, instead of being a sign of infection. He was put on IV antibiotic last night, and blood was drawn for cultures, which is standard protocol when you come in with a fever.

His immune system isn’t wiped out right now, which is good, and labs from early this morning show more improvement in the decrease in his white blood cell count. Today, the WBC count is 11.7k, down from 18.5k yesterday. The percentage of leukemia blast cells in his blood stream are 53% today, down from 77% yesterday.

Around 4am, he received a unit of platelets because his platelet count had dropped to 11k. He is also on a steady stream of IV fluids to help flush out his kidneys.

He was concerned that this fever would push back the treatment at Duke, but was assured that it would not.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Please also especially remember Tiffany’s family Tiffany’s Journey as they deal with losing her to cancer, and Elijah Prayers for Elijah as he has had a rough few days. Both Tiffany and Elijah have younger siblings, as does BJ, and it is equally difficult for them to watch this suffering.

If you are able to donate blood/platelets, now is the time. We were told Monday that there is a critical shortage of platelets. Thank you to all those who donate – you are saving lives.