Today is Christmas Eve and also "Day 12" -- which is supposed to be the day that Paul would start feeling much better after his transplant 12 days ago. Unfortunately, things haven't gone according to plan. Paul got the flu just as his stem cells were engrafting. Because he was so immune-compromised, it was very difficult for him to avoid getting some kind of bug. So, while his white blood cells did indeed start multiplying along with his red blood cells and platelets, these positive developments were off-set by this flu. Paul has been pretty sick with extreme fatigue, nausea, diarrhea and other nasty flu symptoms. Tim also developed the flu, but because his immune system isn't compromised like Paul's, his symptoms were milder and should not last more than a few days. Paul's symptoms are likely to continue for the next week or two. This puts the timetable of when Paul will be released to go back home to Berkeley up in the air. If it wasn't for the flu, he might have been able to go home in a few days. In the meantime, he has been put on several different antibiotics and Tamiflu to try to get things under control.

"Gillham's Bell (Darwinia oxylepis), Kings Park, Perth, Australia*