Shingles

Hi Everyone,

We've had an eventful couple of days. Jordan decided she wanted to start the new year off right by being admitted into the hospital. ;-) She's back at All Children's Hopsital (ACH). She was admitted on 01/01 because she has come down with a case of the shingles. Can you believe it? This is her first admission since she left the hospital on July 5th after her bone marrow transplant. She has done amazing since transplant and it's actually quite remarkable that she hasn't been admitted for anything since she left.

She broke out in a small rash on her right thigh and we were watching it to see if it got any worse before calling the doctor. We were hoping she would make it to clinic on Tuesday without it worsening, but we weren't that lucky. It spread like wildfire on Monday and became very irritated and was causing her A LOT of pain.

So, we called Dr. Petrovic and sent her an e-mail with a digital photo. She called back and said Jordan had to be admitted for high dose Acyclovir antibiotics via IV for approximately 48 hours.

Ironically this is the same antibiotic they took her off of about three weeks ago. We passed the 6 months post transplant mark and they were beginning to wean her off some meds, the first one was Acyclovir. She had been taking it as a preventative medicine ever since transplant to avoid these types of situations.

So, long story short, her immune system isn't yet up to conquering these type of things on it's own yet. She'll be back on the Acyclovir at home once she's discharged.

Luckily, she doesn't have any other symptoms, no fever or positive cultures, etc. It's just the shingles and she'll be happy as a clam once they are gone.

Please keep her in your thoughts and pray the pain isn't so horrible and that she has a quick recovery and comes home very soon.

On a different note, we have a caring bridge friend at ACH that continues to fight for his life. Please visit his site and post a message to his parents.

You can visit Mark at: www.caringbridge.org/fl/mark

We have another friend that we actually know pretty well. He had his transplant the same day as Jordan and our families became friends because of this unusual connection. His name is Danny and he is also fighting hard in PICU at ACH. Danny doesn't have a caringbridge site, but please say a few prayers for him too. He needs prayers for his lungs to recover so he can come off the vent and wake up to his family.

As always, we appreciate you checking in on Jordan and keeping her in your prayers.

Love to you all,

Katherine