Friday, February 26, 2010

It Looks Promising

Yesterday, Mel's blood levels were low so she received two units of blood and two units of platelets. She was nauseated a lot and the doctors are looking into what is causing it. At around 2pm Mel had a bone marrow biopsy using conscious sedation. I guess it didn't put her out enough and Mel felt pain and remembers it...bummer. My mom said that they had 8 people in the room during the biopsy, a nurse, 2 student nurses, 3 physician's assistants, 1 lab tech and my mom. I guess at some point Mel began some dialogue about our last name and everyone was joking around about it...we got it so much growing up that it just rolls of the skin. I'm sure it helped to lighten the mood a bit.

Today, we found out the results of the biopsy. They found that Mel has less than 5% of cells in her bone marrow, some red cells and some white cells. The doctors said it looks promising, but they are going to watch her for a week and if the cells don't start building up then she will have another biopsy and a Chimerism test done; this test will tell the doctors how many cells are from the donor and how many are Mel's.

Here is something I learned about stem cells today from my mom. It may help all of us understand a little bit better. Stem cells are immature cells. The doctor compared them to a kindergartner (how appropriate for Mel). The cells have to decide what they want to be when they grow up and then they will start to produce those type of cells. Right now Melanie's bones aren't full of marrow like ours are. We are waiting for the stem cells to "grow up". When they do her bones will start filling up with marrow. I hope I understood that correctly...don't take it as gospel. :)

Mel's throat is starting to feel better...yay! She is still battling nausea. Mom said that she has nothing to throw up, so it is really uncomfortable. Her feet are swollen from all of the fluids that they are pumping into her. She is really tired and hasn't done much today...I don't blame her. On a positive note, Mel had .2 neutrophils. She has had .1 for the last few days and before that she was at 0. We'll take any kind of improvement!

Now stem cells, let's get busy!


My mom took some pictures of Mel's biopsy yesterday and they will be posted tomorrow. Angie will be visiting Mel tomorrow and she'll get the pictures.

We all love you Mel!! Hang in there!

2 comments:

rania_ka said...

Hang in there Mel..Everybody is praying for you here from Greece..
Love Rania

Steve Morse said...

Hi Mel!
Come on little stemmies! grow, grow, grow! I hope they realize how lucky they are to be transplanted in such a wonderful person. We're thinking of you and praying for your speedy recovery, summer's coming, yeah!
I'm going to call Angie to help with the fundraiser on May 1st at the Civic Center. I've got a whole storage unit full of stuff we can sell!
Hang in there and keep smilin', you have an amazing family and strong friends supporting you.

PS: I talked to Faith and she said quit droolin' on her man!!!