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Date Posted: 14:48:43 04/24/03 Thu
Author: arglass
Subject: News on Alex

Hi Everyone,

Well that was the shortest release in history. Yesterday morning Alex had extremely high blood pressure, which they treated at clinic. Last night around 9:30 pm she became dizzy while walking to the bathroom and grazed her head
against the doorframe. We didn't think much of it, but 45 minutes later we noticed that her eyes were glassy. As soon as we asked her how she felt, we knew something was wrong, as she was unable to answer coherently. We suspected she
might have a concussion, so we immediately brought Alex to the Duke Emergency Room. On the way to the hospital Alex had a couple moments of lucidity (e.g. we did a knock-knock joke together), but for the most part she was incoherent.

Once we arrived at the hospital they took her blood pressure, which was normal, and scheduled her for a head CT scan. Thankfully the CT scan showed no internal bleeding, but Alex's condition deteriorated until by 3 am she was no longer talking or reacting to anything around her. She was just staring blankly into space. This lasted for around 6-7 hours until late this morning when she started to show signs of understanding what was going on around her. She is still unable to talk, but she can comprehend what is being spoke to her and is answering by nodding or shaking her head. We were moved from the ER to the Bone Marrow Unit
around 12:30 pm today and will remain there for a minimum of two days.

Of course I'm sure by now most of you are asking what the heck is going on?! Well Alex appears to have Cyclosporine Toxicity. Cyclosporine is the immuno-suppressant that Alex is currently on to keep her body from rejecting the
transplant. In certain cases it can lead to serious toxic side effects including high blood pressure. In Alex's case the blood pressure in her brain became so high that it impacted the Language area of her brain. The good news is that she has been taken off the cyclosporine and given blood pressure medication to control the high blood pressure. The condition is usually reversible and if all
goes well she should be able to speak again in just a few days.

Alex will be placed on another immuno-suppressant drug, as soon as we have complete confirmation that it is indeed Cyclosporine Toxicity. This new drug has its own set of side effects, but we're hopeful that she'll respond well to it. The silver lining (for Andrea at least) is that unlike Cyclosporine, this new drug does not cause rapid hair growth all over the patient's body. Or as Andrea says she won't look like "Sam the Eagle" from the Muppet Show this time!

I'll post more as Alex's condition changes over the next couple of days. Take
care.

-- Todd

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