A shift where I don’t where a yellow isolation gown to go into these rooms is pretty unusual. Once someone is cultured positive for these microbes, they stay on “isolation” for the duration of the visit, sometimes for life in the case of microbes resistant to all antibiotics, in the (vain) hopes that staff, visitors and patients won’t go moving those resistant microbes around the hospital. Tons of antibiotic-resistant microbes, hanging out in patient bodies and everywhere else. You know what else is in the hospital? Microbes.

And you want to know the kicker? If these patients are infected, it’s usually because of microbes in their own body have run amok and caused infection. We encourage them to make safe food choices, avoiding foods that can’t be washed or scrubbed clean, or might be undercooked. Their rooms have special filtration systems. We make them wear masks in the hallways, in order to filter out airborne viruses. We teach people to fastidiously handwash, and avoid people who are sick. We culture blood and urine, scan lungs, treat with antibiotics, and monitor for a few days to see if any microbes grow out in cultures. Neutropenia means the patient has none of those cells to speak of.

Neutrophils are those brave little white blood cells that go out into our bodies and do battle with all the nasty things our bodies are exposed to every day. Frequently patients have “neutropenic fevers,” a condition considered to be potentially harmful and almost always requiring admission to the hospital. Read December 2018 Recommended for people who like biology ★ ★ ★ ★ ★įor my entire hospital career I have worked in oncology, where I have been part of teams taking care of people with cancer.

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