Days 101-102: back in the pole house

Mina Brigitta's weekly test came back positive for the cytomegalovirus, or CMV (http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic544.htm), which is a virus in the herpes family. CMV can be very serious in immunocompromised patients, so they brought us into the hospital so that Mina can get an antiviral agent called gancyclovir. Luckily the test only found a single CMV cell, so it seems they caught the infection very early. They're planning to keep us in here until Friday afternoon or perhaps Saturday. Then we'll have to give the GCV at home, twice daily through the IV. With any luck, she'll never develop any symptoms, but they'll of course be watching her extra carefully over the next few weeks.

At the same time, her gut issues are not resolving. There is a strain of antibiotic-resistant c. diff. that's been going around the hospital, so that's still the most likely culprit. Her stool culture from Sunday hasn't grown anything yet, but that's not too surprising. They took another one today, so we may know by tomorrow whether she still has the c. diff. If that comes back negative, they'll have to start looking elsewhere. The CMV is another possible cause, as is GVHD, or ulcers or other irritation related to her medications. The other thing is that CMV can sometimes trigger GVHD outbreaks, so she could end up with "all of the above". As much as I hate the fact that she's now positive for CMV, in a way I welcome the extra attention she'll be getting now, because the gut issue has been quite worrisome.

It's a drag that this hospital stay has to coincide with Kari and Carmen's visit. They spent a couple of hours here today, but Carmen was kind of bouncing off the walls after a while. They can still help out with Isaac, of course, but what we really wanted was for Mina Brigitta and Carmen to spend some quality time running around together. Hopefully they'll let us out of here on the early side tomorrow.