The hospital did further testing on mom's bone marrow and determined that she now has 100% of Joe's (the donor & Mary's brother) stem cells. I don't talk about this very often on here but this is a really good thing because my mom's cells are no longer combating Joe's. It always takes a while for this to happen, and we slowly saw the number come up, now all the way to 100%. Because of this, they don't have to do any stem cell treatment. We always like to hear that she doesn't have to go through additional procedures!
They also are happy with her platelet count this week. It jumped up a few more points and this was good for the doctor to see. It had been going down for a few weeks, the doctor believes due to graphs versus host because they are lowering her anti-rejection medication each week/month (if that's too specific, I'm sorry :). All that to say, they're happy with where she's at and hope to see it continue to go up.
Now Mary and Greg are off for a fun weekend with all of Mary's siblings. They try to do this once a year and always have a great time together! It's great my mom can do this with no worries! :)
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Clean Marrow
Hi everyone,
Mom's results came back clean on the bone marrow from last week, praise the Lord! They see no signs of cancer and are still very happy with how she's doing. They're running more tests on her bone marrow this week to determine exactly what to do with her medicine, which we should hear more about later this week. They want to decrease her medicine as much as possible, as soon as possible, so that her imune system can build up to be strong enough to fight off disease in the future.
Mom's results came back clean on the bone marrow from last week, praise the Lord! They see no signs of cancer and are still very happy with how she's doing. They're running more tests on her bone marrow this week to determine exactly what to do with her medicine, which we should hear more about later this week. They want to decrease her medicine as much as possible, as soon as possible, so that her imune system can build up to be strong enough to fight off disease in the future.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Waiting on Bone Marrow Results
Mom had her appointment at Northwestern yesterday and had a bone marrow done. Her levels are all still looking good, they're just doing the bone marrow because it's been a while and they want to check things out at a closer view.
Mom always gets a bit nervous to have the bone marrow done but it went very smooth and my dad was with to support her. Now we await the results but probably won't hear until Monday.
Please pray for my mom that she can trust in God's plan above her own, that she feels peace about her upcoming results, and that she remains healthy. There will always be a part of her that's nervous to get these test results but I was reminding her last night of how good she feels and how great her results have been lately. We will continue to trust in the Lord for our every need.
Mom always gets a bit nervous to have the bone marrow done but it went very smooth and my dad was with to support her. Now we await the results but probably won't hear until Monday.
Please pray for my mom that she can trust in God's plan above her own, that she feels peace about her upcoming results, and that she remains healthy. There will always be a part of her that's nervous to get these test results but I was reminding her last night of how good she feels and how great her results have been lately. We will continue to trust in the Lord for our every need.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Who wants to hear more good news?
Mom had her appointment at Northwestern on Wednesday and found out her red count is now at 12.5!! That's in the normal range (11-14)!!! The doctor was very pleased about this and all is looking well :) It must have taken a few weeks for the red cell treatment to kick in gear.
Also many of Mom's medications are consistently being lowered in dosage. She's down to almost nothing with her anti-rejection medicine so the doctor is confident that Joe's stem cells have now taken over mostly, if not all of mom's blood. They're going to do a bone marrow next week to take a closer look at everything since it's been a couple months. We're confident about it this time with her blood results coming back so positive.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
On a sad note, mom's hospital friend, Meridith, learned a couple weeks ago that her leukemia is back and she's now in the hospital going through treatment again. This was extremely hard for my mom to hear but she was able to stop by and see Meridith after her appointment this week. The reminder of the reality of cancer will always be around each of us, but we know our Lord has a plan for each person we know. Please lift Meridith up today in your prayers and remember to live each day to the fullest as we don't know how many we have ahead of us.
Also many of Mom's medications are consistently being lowered in dosage. She's down to almost nothing with her anti-rejection medicine so the doctor is confident that Joe's stem cells have now taken over mostly, if not all of mom's blood. They're going to do a bone marrow next week to take a closer look at everything since it's been a couple months. We're confident about it this time with her blood results coming back so positive.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
On a sad note, mom's hospital friend, Meridith, learned a couple weeks ago that her leukemia is back and she's now in the hospital going through treatment again. This was extremely hard for my mom to hear but she was able to stop by and see Meridith after her appointment this week. The reminder of the reality of cancer will always be around each of us, but we know our Lord has a plan for each person we know. Please lift Meridith up today in your prayers and remember to live each day to the fullest as we don't know how many we have ahead of us.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
In Florida!
Mom's count stayed up again this week at 9.6, woohoo! So Mom and Dad left for Florida yesterday and will be there for a little over a week. They were so excited to go and I know they'll have a great time!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Set to go on vacation!
My mom and dad went up for mom's appointment today to have a checkup with the doctor. They've planned a vacation to Florida for about 10 days at the end of this month and my mom has been a little nervous about her levels and not being able to go. Today the doctor said everything was looking great. Mom's blood count was at 9.6 (up .5 from Monday) and the doctor was happy with all of the other counts as well. Mom will continue her weekly appointments at Ottawa hospital for blood work, but doesn't have to go back up to Northwestern until June 2nd! They'll continue to watch the results but it looks like they'll be able to head off to Florida as scheduled! What great news! Both of my parents deserve a vacation since my dad's been working all over the state for the past few months and they haven't been able to relax together for a while. Praise God for this gift :)
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