"Mary Legend"

As many of you know our family eats and sleeps basketball...one of the greatest players of all time is Larry Bird - aka Larry Legend.  There is another "Legend" who is still occupying room 1596 at Prentice and today I decided that we're just going to think of her as Mary Legend!!  Just when you think she has done it all and she's fought through so much...she finds a way to keep going and wowing everyone including the doctors...thus why her new name is Mary Legend! 

Amy and I drove up this morning to see Mom and hope that we would finally hear the results of her bone marrow biopsy.  Sue was there from staying with her last night and Mom looked great when we came in.  She's much more alert, talkative and generally stronger each time that I am there with her.  About an hour after arriving Dr. Nye came in and was finally able to share the news with us. 

You'll have to be patient because it's not a simple yes or no answer, as you know it's hard to understand all of the things that these doctors spend their entire career trying to figure out.  She said that the samples reveal that her bone marrow has been wiped out, which is a positive thing because that means her body is still responding to the therapy (chemo).  She also indicated that they did see a few leukemic cells present but that they are unsure if they are dying and just on the way out or if they are actually still active and reproducing other leukemic cells.  This bone marrow biopsy was done much earlier (day 14) than other rounds that Mom has had treatment, and that is due to them wanting to try and figure out if they could give her some medicine to help boost her white blood cell production. 

After you go through treatment your body ends up starting fresh/new within the bone marrow and hopefully producing good stuff again.  Due to them seeing some leukemic cells they feel it is not a good option to give her the medicine to boost her white cell production and therefore her body will have to just build that on her own.  After they see those numbers come back up they will then do another bone marrow biopsy to give them better results...maybe 1 - 2 weeks.  Mom was very disappointed with this news and was visibly upset because she is ready to get out of the hospital more than anything.  But, there were several very good signs that the doctors were excited about, mainly that her body is responding to treatment and her pneumonia is still very much under control at this time.  Like I said above, she looks stronger and stronger each time we see her and the doctors are very encouraged by what her body is showing them.  Sometimes after you've been through as much as she has your body just stops responding to treatment, and I think it was apparent that they had their doubts that the treatment would even work at all.  Surprise, Mary Legend has different plans...she's going to find a way to walk out of there, even if there is a delay of a few days or weeks - I can see that determination in her eyes now. 

Please pray that her white cells counts and marrow respond quickly and that her emotions can stay strong, and keep the cards and comments on the blog coming.  Thank you again, I tried my best to explain but I know it's hard to figure out...it's still the case that they only person in control is God and we have no control and little understanding of the why's and how's...but that's ok.  Pray for that peace to know that God is in full control.  Love to you all, we'll update you again soon,

Adam