Progress Report

Mark's condition continues to frustrate his physicians. We're looking for any and all small improvements though. At this point, his psychological condition needs attention and going home even for a week or two would be monumentous. So, the decision to put a PEG tube into his abdominal wall continuous with his stomach/jejunum is planned for the next day or two. That way he can remove the tube from his nose, be fed through the PEG tube and hopefully go home and start gaining some nourishment physically and mentally.

The absesses in his abdomen are persistent and largely unchanged; although, the drains are producing a fluid that is a bit more clear which is good news. Our hope is that they are not infected. He continues on antibiotics and is not going back into abdominal surgery right now (hopefully). He has swelling in his knees and ankle, which are hopefully just gout. And, while painful, the gouty arthritis is not a threat as would be an infectious arthritis. The Rheumatologist chose to inject steroids into the knees to alleviate the inflammation with reasonable confidence that the cell count indicated a non-infectious etiology along with some other findings in the aspirate fluid which point to gout.

Mark's spirits are waxing and waning, but he is trying to continue the battle that he's waging against the frustrating and protracted course of Leukemia.The bottom line is that he needs to get a lot stronger and healthier to get the Pre-Bone Marrow Transplant-therapy. We are praying for miracles that will help him do this.