Day 13.

We are in the midst of some pretty tough days...they say Day 13 and 14 are the worst of them all. Mary is handling herself very well (Docs are trying different meds to control blood pressure and to prevent the destruction of platelets, fluids to keep the kidneys flushed and she is getting pumped full of platelets and blood). She is just tired and is really using her Sunday as "a day of rest."

We found out that she is getting all of the platelets because 1)they tend to die off after 8 hours (and her body is not producing them like she should be). 2)She is having a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow morning and her level needs to be at 20 so she won't have a horrible bruise from the procedure.

Good news is that the platelets are being accepted better by her body and all that is going on with her right now..is "normal" in these days of treatment.

Please be praying for rest and her body's preparation for the bone marrow biopsy tomorrow - they are working hard to get her ready for that :) The results of this test determine the next step. If there are no leukemia cells found, she will stay in the hospital and be supported until her counts come up. She will then be able to go home for a couple of weeks before she comes back for the stem cell transplant (in which we are still waiting on the rest of her sibling's results). If leukemia cells are found in the test, she will need to stay here a little longer and go through another round of chemo. Obviously, we are gonna pray hard for the first! And that is what we will do!!

Julie