Boost the Bev and not the 'Beasties"

Today Beverley's counts continue to be strong. She came off the poppy juice on Sunday morning except for what is euphemistically termed a "rescue" dose. (If the pain becomes too tough, you press a button and float away for a while.) Freed from the drip-drip-drip of the narcotic she was much brighter, speaking crisply and -sadly - devouring tabloid details of the wedding of Dolores Duodenum and Harvey Heterohernia. ( Sorry after two weeks in this place everything sounds like a body part or a drug!) She also consumed her first non-hospital nutrition in the form of 6 ounces of strawberry flavoured "Boost" . Last year this -and chicken noodle soup with the noodles removed- proved to be her favourite post-transplant beverage prior to the onset of "Gin." Having had very little real -hallucination free- sleep for several days, yesterday's -relatively-normal human activity following the withdrawal of the poppy extract usually leads to a day or so of really deep natural sleep and today (Monday) we are seeing that. We watched this scene unfold last August, so we are happy to wait until she is 'slept out.' At the present moment (Monday 12noon) we are still waiting detailed results from Beverley's Friday bronchoscopy. She is still breathing oxygen but this has been reduced by half from Friday's supply and my wristwatch tells me that her breathing rate is down by a half from Friday. She is not coughing at all and so we are hopeful that whatever the lung problem was at the end of last week is subsiding. Certainly the cultures from the bronchoscopy have not shown any signs of an infection at this stage-although there are more long term culture results still to come.

On this matter of fungal infections - and as previewed by Tom- todays scientific sermon will focus on the contribution of women's hair care to the incidence of fungal infections. As a parent and scientist with a daughter at risk of lung infection I feel it my duty to speak out ! Among the possible 'bugs' that can infect patients -especially in the lungs-following stem cell transplants are fungi and yeasts like Aspergillus and Nocardia (Hamadani M, Benson DM Jr, Blum W, Garzon R, Devine S., Pulmonary Nocardia and Aspergillus co-infection in a patient with chronic graft-versus-host disease.
Transpl Infect Dis. 2007 Jul 25; [Epub ahead of print]) (Dont rush-Read it later)

Now consider the changes in women's hair care products in recent years and you will notice that the main commercial thrust has been to ensure that they are stuffed with enough exotic 'nutrients' to feed the bugs of the world and - most importantly for my thesis- to ensure that the residue of these products left behind in the shower should look to a bug like the remains of a banquet ! Fish proteins, acacia honey, marmoset milk, frog proteins, pork scratchings, albumen, jojoba oil, beeswax, coconut oil, yak butter, oil of ole', wheat bran, green salad, corn syrup, mango extract, whale oil and larks tongues are but a sample of what you girls will smother over your scalp to get that 'lustre' on your locks. Meanwhile down on the shower floor and along the tiles the bugs are building ! Smacking their microbial lips and multiplying as never before in the old 'carbolic ' days. Once upon a time you washed your hair with a real soap made from pure unaldulterated lard, whose principal additive was a phenol derivative guaranteed to put the fear of extinction into any bug. Now the shampoo slogans should read "Guaranteed to promote the growth of 99.9% of known germs !!!!" Soooo... in the showers and bathrooms of the world that black line between the tiles and those black patches on the curtain and on the ceiling are, I submit, the visible form of a massive invasion by the force- the 'Fungal Force !' Fling away your fancy formulas girls - you have nothing to lose but your fungi !

The Dad