Tuesday - November 27 - Day-40

The broncoscopy procedure on Monday went well. They arrived at 7:15 A.M. and wheeled Jan down by stretcher to the procedure room. She was given topical anesthetics in her mouth and throat, and some additional sedation. The pulmonary team flushed an area adjacent to the infected site, and aspirated the fluid into a collection tube. If sufficient numbers of bacteria and or fungus cells are gathered and can be grown in culture, then a definitive identification can be made and specific treatment administered. She was returned to her room after about an hour. She was pretty groggy, and her voice was very hoarse the remainder of the day.

Jan’s white count made gains today, jumping from 260 on Monday to 560 on Tuesday. Of course, the normal white count for most individuals is between 5,000 and 10,000, so she is still at only about 10% of the minimum. For you math majors out there, the counts are per microliter, which is 1/1000 of a milliliter. There are about 30 milliliters in an ounce. For all the nurses in the family, there are as you know about six different types of white blood cells. Two of those are called neutrophil bands and neutrophil polys. When the total of these two specific types of white blood cells reaches 500 we can discuss the “d” word…………..discharge. Today her magic number was 70. So we are about 15% of where we need to be to go home!!! We are hoping for bigger numbers every day. The countdown to 500 has begun.