Jeanne, Ei, and Chris,

I just got off the phone with Barb. Jack is doing better. He is stronger. The doctors are still not 100% sure what is going on. They are pretty sure that it is graft-versus-host disease. Chris found the wikipedia information about it below. You can click onto it and read the article.

It is basically like an auto-immune disease. Only now Jack's immune system is mine. So my T-cells are not recognizing some of Jack's cells as being part of body and attacking them. He does have a rash as well as the bloody diarrhea. The GI symptoms would be like Crone's Disease (which is an autoimmune disease of the GI tract). Skin rashes are also common in autoimmune diseases.

So, like when they thought that Lelia had Lupus (another autoimmune disease with a rash), they are giving him prednisone. It seems to be helping and may be why he is felling better today. However, Barbara still says that they haven't completely ruled out an infection and test results won't be back for 3 more days. They will be doing a colonoscopy tomorrow morning.

However, the good news is that he is not rejecting the graft. These are side-effects that M.D. Anderson is used to handling. Barb says that Jack is stronger now, but pretty emotional and discouraged. Prednisone tends to make you emotionally fragile. He could use phone calls, encouragement, and prayers. His cell phone number is 817-676-2856. Probably the best time to call him is 3-6 pm our time.

Brother Frank