Can anyone give me information regarding bacteria in your blood?.?

My Father was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia a year ago. He has had different types of chemo. He just finished a new chemo last week and started with a very high fever in the middle of the night. It was 104 and he was admitted to the hospital.

They found that he has bacteria in his blood and they are giving him IV antibiotics.

I feel like we're not getting 100% info from everyone. Is there a chance he can survive this or is it hopeless?

My Father will be 67 next month and was in great medical condition untile diagnosed with acute leukemia. It was caught very early and he even went into remission for a short time. Then this happened.

I would greatly appreciate any information (no matter how dismal) as I would much rather hear the truth and know what I have to face then to have things sugar coated and be given a bit of hope when there's none.

First and foremost, let me say I'm sorry for your troubles and I hope I can shed some light on the situation for you in very basic terms.

Chemotherapy for people with acute leukemia (depending on what type) generally results in severe systemic granulocytopenia, much more so than more conservative chemotherapy medications. What this means is that, because of the nature of the type of cancer he has, the type of chemo drugs they have to give him to fight it results in the number of healthy white blood cells available to fight infections being dangerously low.

Generally, people getting chemo for ALL and AML get constant concordant injections of high-yield antibiotics and granulocyte colony stimulators, which help the weakened body fight off infection and regrow new white blood cells as fast as possible.

However, it's clear your father contracted sepsis (which is the name for a bacterial infection of the blood), despite the injections. This is unfortunately a relatively common result of the immuno-suppression resulting from leukemia chemo drugs.

Now that the bacteria are multiplying in his bloodstream, there are very few white blood cells to help him fight them off. The doctors are going to try very hard, with a combination of high-strength antibiotics, to help your father try and beat back the infection. But unfortunately, these drugs have side-effects as well, and many times a person who is already weak from the combined effects of prolonged cancer and chemotherapy can't tolerate the additional strain of even more strong drugs.

I wish I could give you more information, or perhaps some hope, but as you asked, I wont sugar coat it. The situation is quite dire. I'm not going to make any definitive commentary on things, since I'm not there and I don't have his chart in front of me, but understand that the prognosis for sepsis in a severely immuno-compromised 67 year old is not very good.

The doctors will do everything they can to help your father. In the mean time, I suggest very strongly that you speak with one of the counselors offered by the hospital. They can fill in many of the gaps that the doctors might not be able to provide.

If you have any more additions, please add them to your question and I'll respond accordingly.

Strength to you in your time of need,

-Dr. Finn

When you have chemo all of your body's white blood cells are killed off along with the cancer. So your father is very suseptable to disease. A simple bacteria that you yourself could fight off he can't until his White blood cells build back up. He ended up getting whats called a neutropenic fever. Its the only way his body can fight off the bacteria in his blood (bacteremia). IV antibiotics help. Each case is different or whether or not a person can fight it off. The healthier they were the better. It's important now that he fights off what he has and not get any new complications. Make sure there is strick hand washing before entering the room. No fresh fruit, flowers, or anyone that might have a cold.