Just to illustrate the fragility of a suppressed immune system, while out at lunch on Saturday she managed, with some kind of awkward movement, to prick her arm with a used toothpick.
At the time, she thought little of it, but the next day the arm was painful and throbbing, and the day after it was exempted from cannulas and needles - a big deal in that hospital, believe me...
Given its natural aubergine-like colour, albeit greatly faded, they could
infer little visually and so examined it by amazingly-sensitive ultrasound.
Of course there were also the usual thousand or so blood samples and
cultures taken, and, despite Joc having been slugged with enough OKT3 to
fell an elephant, her immune system fought back, her white blood cell
count went up, and she apparently overcame the infection herself.
This is a good sign, inasmuch as it is not possible to avoid minor nicks and grazes etc. in the real world for the three months or so it will take her system to partially recover. In fact her ability to withstand the hospital food alone bodes well for her body's ability to deal with everyday toxins. Every time I consume this weapon of mass destruction I get violent stomach cramps and near-dysentery. I don't know how she does it :)
Throughout this infectious episode her liver tests continued to improve and she became stronger and more able to walk around, but after 8 days of the OKT3 her tests results faltered and then started to deteriorate again.
The OK was stopped at day 10, and yesterday (Friday) she had a third liver biopsy and a zillion blood cultures. Due to various delays the test results were not available yesterday and will not be available until later today, as the hospital goes into 'weekend' mode about midday Fridays...
Nevertheless they have already isolated some sort of infectious agent in her bile drainage, and she is on a four-hourly specialised intravenous antibiotic for this, at the moment. Naturally we are hoping that this infection is enough to account for the bad liver function tests.
Now you know as much as I do,
Love, JH.