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Day +15 no neutrophils
My partner (47yo) has AML. He had his transplant on 14th February. All seemed fine and his neutrophils were 0.01 on day +11 but they have not moved since then. He does have a bit of an infection that is slowly climbing (125). Could this be why his neutrophils aren't rising or could this be graft rejection? I'm getting no support from the ward staff and am completely on my own worrying my guts out. My partner is worrying that he's just going to die now.
Comments
Hi Lesley, thanks for posting. I'm one of the online community champions here and had a transplant just over 10 years ago.
I can imagine that this will be worrying for you and your husband. It's very early days in his transplant and I guess it's possible that the infection has affected his counts climbing. I remember from my own transplant that the rise in the counts was very slow and it's possible that the infection has caused a temporary blip in your husbands progress.
I guess his medical team are treating the infection, maybe with antibiotics, and will be monitoring the infection markers closely as well as his cell counts. I can imagine your concerns and you should speak to the medical team, particularly his consultant to make sure they help you understand what is happening and whether there is any cause for concern.
Whilst your husbands body can't fight the infection itself he will probably be treated with medication to get rid of the infection and once that has gone his ounts will hopefully start to climb again. It is painfully slow at first and there will be peaks and troughs along the way which can be scary.
If you need independent support it may be worth making contact with the Anthony Nolan Patient Services team directly using one of the methods outlined on the following link https://www.anthonynolan.org/patients-and-families/get-support-us. They may be able to give you some assurances and speaking directly to them will hopefully help.
It's easy for me to say try not to worry as I know how distressing this can be, but it is hopefully a minor hiccup very early in his transplant recovery and once the infection has been dealt with his recovery will continue.
Best wishes,
Steve
Hi Steve, LesleyB,
I can remember when I had my bone marrow transplant, when my count was around this level 0.01 it can be the counts are still on the way down rather than the way back up and they allow 0.02 for error as well as around this level the counts are not accurate, and when the levels are around here it can take a lot of days to turn around. I was too very worried and it took forever to come back. Also remember your husband is probably been through other chemo and has been fighting if the aml to the body is weak and recovery takes longer the more treatments and the fighting the body is doing. I am over 50 and I did recover, your husband has age on his side. Give it a few more days and I am sure it will start climbing. The body is working overtime now to achieve this. Your husband is lucky he has a caring wife at his side, unfortunately you just have to be patient as recovery for this is a slow process for anything related to cancer.