[imckinne]

Has anyone had any experiences with sepsis (Gram neg)? We are getting day to day conflicting messages from mom's oncologist. She appears to be responding to the antibiotics and he is very positive that she can overcome this and get back to rehab (still trying to recover from brain and back bleeds during ATG administration - despite a transfusion her platelets dropped to 7000 while her blood pressure was still out of control from the ATG). At the same time, we are told there is some damage to her heart valve and that her gall bladder is "sludgy" because she's not eating well nor processing proteins well. He seems clear that coming back from sepsis will be a tough battle (remember she is extremely weak and 76 years old) and that there is a high likelihood that it will return when the antibiotics are stopped after 14 days. We still have no response to the ATG (4 1/2 weeks) and I believe he will do another BMB next week if she's stable and strong enough. She's been in the hospital now for 5 1/2 weeks. The sepsis caused so much pain throughout her body that she is now on a morphene pump (2 grams available every half hour). Although she does not appear to be in pain, she is so afraid of the pain that she just keeps pushing the button.