Date:         Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:24:45 +0200
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject:      Fwd: Mike's health - there's still hope
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update from Mary

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mary Collum <collummary@myfairpoint.net>
Date: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:08 PM


Today for the first time in the past two weeks Have a glimmer of hope that
things might turn around.  His kidneys are gone completely but there is
still hope that his lungs might start working again.  He had a surgical
procedure done a few hours ago and he did very good.  They found three
bleeds in his stomach and was able to use clamps and it was a successful
process.  They took him off the ventilator right after the precedure was
completed and his doctor was very happy.  There has not been any changes in
the xrays they did yesterday and today, they are identical which means no
new things happening in the lungs.  The blood culture they did two days ago
has not grown anything new but shows that he still has lots of stuff growing
in the lungs and blood.  He has one infection that causes menigitis and they
will do a lumbar probe in a few days.  His platelet count is now up to 40
and they are still giving him platelets and will get another unit of blood
today.  Took him off the chemo drug because it has suppressed his bone
marrow from growing new cells.  They stopped the plasma exchange because it
was being used for the kidneys and since the kidneys are not going to work
again they are stopping it.  Now the hurdle is to get the infections cleared
up and the lungs to stop bleeding.  Since they have gotten the bleed stopped
his blood count should go up and the platelets should increase.  Will update
later. Mary