Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Still Hopeful

Another day of hospital hum-drum. Melanie was able to make it down to the gift shop for a little jaunt. They forgot to bring the camera along though. Counts are still down, so Melanie is scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow. She has demanded the conscious sedation, and hopefully it will be a smooth and painless procedure. Dr. Ash came in today and explained things a bit more. Yes, technically it could take 28 days for ingraftment after transplant. Today is day 18 for Melanie. However, Dr. Petersen really feels strongly that they need to check things out and get moving on this. If the bone marrow biopsy shows that there are some new cells developing, we will continue to just wait for the counts to come up. If the biopsy shows that nothing is happening, they would call it failure to graft. In this case, Melanie would receive some more chemo, get the horse blood (as opposed to the rabbit she already got), and then they would give her some more donor cells. When they harvested the first time, they froze some for any future need. We are hoping for good things, but know that if the first cells didn't graft, there is still hope.

Dr. Ash told Melanie and my mom about another boy who had to have the second transplant. He just happened to be in the hospital today! He came and visited with Melanie. My mom said he was a very nice and offered to talk with her any time she wanted. It is so nice that people are willing to offer their advice, insight, and comfort!

Good Luck tomorrow, Melanie. You can get through this procedure once again, and no matter the outcome, you will prevail!!

3 comments:

Kimbies said...

I am hoping for the best dear sister! I am sorry you have to go through another bone marrow biopsy. I am glad you will get knocked out though! Please hang in there okay! I love you so much! I will call you later! Good luck!

The Murdocks said...

Good luck with everything. You are in our prayers. We hope that you have a good day today and that everything goes well for you! Love, Meg Hammond Murdock and Family

Kerren said...

Such amazing proceedures! Wow . . . it just baffles me to think that someone in their great wisdom, comes up with the innovation to make all of these things happen. Bruce and I -- along with our families and huge numbers of your friends -- keep praying for you and all of your family. I am so impressed and inspired by your strength. Between you and the Olympics -- I don't know which amazes me the most! Love you lots.
Kerren