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MINNEAPOLIS — Battling a high fever in the two days since his bone marrow transplant, Jonathan Pitre now faces the difficult prospect of more chemotherapy.
Jonathan, 16, begins two days of chemotherapy on Sunday.
The Russell, Ont. teenager will receive a targeted dose of cyclophosphamide in order to knock out the T-cells contained in his mother’s bone marrow, infused into Jonathan’s bloodstream on Thursday.
The chemo drug, however, does not harm the all-important stem cells, which hold the potential to transform the teen’s devastating skin disease, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), into something more manageable.
“You can be that specific: The timing is of essence; the choice of the drug is of essence,” explained the University of Minnestoa’s Dr. Jakub Tolar, the pediatric transplant specialist who pioneered the use of stem cells to treat severe cases of EB.
Jonathan endured nine days of chemotherapy and radiation before his bone marrow transplant to condition his body for the introduction of the new cells.
The latest round of chemo is intended to head off a sometimes life-threatening complication, known as graft-versus-host disease.
Tolar said it is one of the many potential complications that the teenager faces in the aftermath of his transplant.
Infection is now the principal danger that confronts Jonathan, whose body is no longer producing infection-fighting white blood cells. Doctors hope to find evidence of new, white blood cell production in two or three weeks.
It means Pitre is now in a critical and dangerous phase of his treatment. For the past two days, he has suffered from recurring high fevers — sometimes a sign of infection. They have been treated with Tylenol, ibuprofen and ice packs.
All day Friday, he ran a fever, only to have it break before midnight. It started again, during the night, but broke Saturday morning.
Jonathan’s mother, Tina Boileau, is sleeping on a couch in her son’s fourth-floor room at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital and rarely leaves his side.
Pitre’s medical journey is also complicated by his painful, four-hour bath ritual, which has to be arranged around other medical procedures.
He has to soak in the tub in order to soften the bandages that enwrap him then have them carefully peeled from his body. He soaks in the tub for a second time and his mother lances any new blisters that have formed on his skin. She then dresses his open wounds, and re-wraps him.
Doctors want Jonathan to have a bath every day in order to reduce the chance of infection, but he has resisted that idea because the process is so difficult for him.
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Jonathan, 16, begins two days of chemotherapy on Sunday.
The Russell, Ont. teenager will receive a targeted dose of cyclophosphamide in order to knock out the T-cells contained in his mother’s bone marrow, infused into Jonathan’s bloodstream on Thursday.
The chemo drug, however, does not harm the all-important stem cells, which hold the potential to transform the teen’s devastating skin disease, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), into something more manageable.
“You can be that specific: The timing is of essence; the choice of the drug is of essence,” explained the University of Minnestoa’s Dr. Jakub Tolar, the pediatric transplant specialist who pioneered the use of stem cells to treat severe cases of EB.
Jonathan endured nine days of chemotherapy and radiation before his bone marrow transplant to condition his body for the introduction of the new cells.
The latest round of chemo is intended to head off a sometimes life-threatening complication, known as graft-versus-host disease.
Tolar said it is one of the many potential complications that the teenager faces in the aftermath of his transplant.
Infection is now the principal danger that confronts Jonathan, whose body is no longer producing infection-fighting white blood cells. Doctors hope to find evidence of new, white blood cell production in two or three weeks.
It means Pitre is now in a critical and dangerous phase of his treatment. For the past two days, he has suffered from recurring high fevers — sometimes a sign of infection. They have been treated with Tylenol, ibuprofen and ice packs.
All day Friday, he ran a fever, only to have it break before midnight. It started again, during the night, but broke Saturday morning.
Jonathan’s mother, Tina Boileau, is sleeping on a couch in her son’s fourth-floor room at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital and rarely leaves his side.
Pitre’s medical journey is also complicated by his painful, four-hour bath ritual, which has to be arranged around other medical procedures.
He has to soak in the tub in order to soften the bandages that enwrap him then have them carefully peeled from his body. He soaks in the tub for a second time and his mother lances any new blisters that have formed on his skin. She then dresses his open wounds, and re-wraps him.
Doctors want Jonathan to have a bath every day in order to reduce the chance of infection, but he has resisted that idea because the process is so difficult for him.
查看原文...
