Saturday, July 30th, 2005: Leela is still in the hospital and will probably be there into next week. She was admitted Thursday night after a blood culture taken mid-day came back positive for two types of bacteria.

The fear is that she has a bacteria infection that could spin out of control if not carefully monitored. The standard procedure for kids in Leela’s situation is to send them home only after blood cultures have been clear for 48 hours and the lab has been able to identify the antibiotics that would work the best. So far a blood culture taken on Saturday morning at 1 a.m. is clear, but two earlier ones were positive for bacteria. We hear that it can take the lab “days” to be able to identify the “right” antibiotics.

The good news is that the Saturday 1 a.m. culture is almost 24 hours old without any signs of infection, Leela is feeling great and without fever, and her immune system has completely recovered from the last cycle of chemo. Even so it seems unlikely that Leela would be released before Tuesday or Wednesday.