Hearts

Last night Clara had some issues with high blood pressure and a low heart rate. The stem cell team brought in a cardio doctor for consultation to try to figure out what is going on before they muddy the waters with the transplant. The immunosupressant drug that Clara is currently on is known to cause elevated blood pressure and the body can respond to this with a lower heart rate. I have also found a few articles pointing to the drug independently causing a low heart rate that disappeared when the drug is discontinued. They are going to start her on blood pressure medication to treat the blood pressure.

This is causing the transplant to be delayed until 2pm today. The issue is that the transplant also causes higher blood pressure and lower heart rate so they want to get a good idea of the problem before the transplant infusion begins. We have already had an EKG and will be getting another one soon along with a longer trace of her heart rate. We will keep updates as things progress.