Waiting for little Jack

10/27/10

Medical update

Today is her 30^th day in this hospitalization.

Teri underwent her 7^th bone marrow aspiration on Monday October 25^th to determine why her white blood count (WBC) is not recovering on schedule.  Her WBC (infection fighting) has been running at 100-200 (normal is 3,500-5,000) and her platelets (clotting) run 15K (normal is 150-300K).  The good news is that the leukemia, compared to the bone marrow aspiration two weeks ago, reveals that it remains at bay.  The bad news is that the bone marrow is not perking up and producing cells.  The transplant works best if the marrow is responsive.  So, not knowing whether her marrow will respond leaves some uncertainty as to whether Teri gets one more round of chemotherapy, goes directly to bone marrow transplant, or gets her own stem cells (autologous transplant) as a bridge to transplant.  Ben is still the proposed haplo-identical (half matched) donor.

Her hospital routine is much the same.  She receives daily IV fluids, IV antifungals, IV antibiotics, intermittent transfusions of red blood cells and platelets, and has daily blood draws.  She’s lost all of her hair follicles and returns to her Buddha babe state.  She walks four to six times a day.  Her oncologists make rounds.  Her nurses come to monitor, give medications and gives her moral support.  She receives cards and checks e-mail.  We eat dinner together.  She manages Dad’s doctor’s appointments.

She misses her home, dreadfully.

Jack, we are all waiting

Everything is going so well with Rachel.  Jack’s cocoon serves as a food tray for Rachel.  He tries to get away from the stress test ultrasound probe.  He is kickin’ up a storm, but not quite ready to emerge and face the music.

Originally, Jack was due to emerge on Friday October 22 and Teri and I were supposed to fly to Columbus on the 25^th.  But … in these times, nothing occurs exactly as we planned.  Teri was in the hospital being neutropenic and unable to travel.  He was supposed to pop out when I was at our national meeting so that I could put his picture in my presentation where I stepped down as president.  But, little Jack is holding back.  Since Teri couldn’t join me, Ben was my support person, and, he even presented a research poster with his boss.  So, now 7 days later, Jack will have to be induced to come out starting on Thursday October 28^th. 

We wait in full anticipation and joy.