Wow, it has been a crazy long time since I’ve written. I suppose in many ways that is a good thing… not too much to update on.
Thankfully we haven’t had anything Major happening. I am relieved to not have “excitement” but I’m not going to lie, we’re getting super ancy. But yall, we’re getting close!
We are now at day 77 post transplant. Joe has done super well. We did have a bit of a scare a couple weeks ago. He had a low grade fever; I was bracing myself for a few days back in the hospital. Thank God, it broke before hitting the “critical” level (100.5). After a pretty big drop in his numbers and numerous tests for infection and bacteria he seems to be clear. The doctors think he must have had some kind of virus that he was able to fight off on his own. This in my opinion is AMAZING. It did take him down quite a few notches but we are now getting back to where he was pre-virus.
We’ve had two engraftment studies thus far. Both have been good but we would like them to be better. The doctors have said that because of the type of transplant that he had (t-cell depletion) it will just take a while for the lymphocytes to come in. His results are not unheard of; we would just like to see them coming in faster. The good news is that there is one section of his blood that is fully engrafted and this happens to be the area that the blast cells were previously in.
What’s next? We wait some more. There is a chance that we will be able to get back home around day 90. That’s two weeks away yall!!!! That doesn’t mean that we get to wash our hands of everything and say good riddance to this season. But it is a HUGE step closer to that. There is still a ton of recovery that needs to happen. We will need to have weekly then bi-weekly trips back to Durham for quite a while and he will still not be ready to jump back into a “normal” routine, but you better believe we will be celebrating. The biggest hurdle in our mind is the day 100 bone marrow biopsy. That will be the moment that tells us if this was all worth it.
As I was just looking at a calendar of what our “day 100” will be, everything hit me. The date will be May 7th. That is exactly one day before our year anniversary of moving to North Carolina. Also, one week shy of the 2nd anniversary of my Dad passing and about two weeks shy of our 7th wedding anniversary. May is filled with so much emotion. If you would, please join us in prayer not only for us to get home but that the month of May could be one that will be filled with celebration. For both the life that we knew and shared with so many people we loved and also for the life that we will get to live together for years to come.
We are now at day 77 post transplant. Joe has done super well. We did have a bit of a scare a couple weeks ago. He had a low grade fever; I was bracing myself for a few days back in the hospital. Thank God, it broke before hitting the “critical” level (100.5). After a pretty big drop in his numbers and numerous tests for infection and bacteria he seems to be clear. The doctors think he must have had some kind of virus that he was able to fight off on his own. This in my opinion is AMAZING. It did take him down quite a few notches but we are now getting back to where he was pre-virus.
We’ve had two engraftment studies thus far. Both have been good but we would like them to be better. The doctors have said that because of the type of transplant that he had (t-cell depletion) it will just take a while for the lymphocytes to come in. His results are not unheard of; we would just like to see them coming in faster. The good news is that there is one section of his blood that is fully engrafted and this happens to be the area that the blast cells were previously in.
What’s next? We wait some more. There is a chance that we will be able to get back home around day 90. That’s two weeks away yall!!!! That doesn’t mean that we get to wash our hands of everything and say good riddance to this season. But it is a HUGE step closer to that. There is still a ton of recovery that needs to happen. We will need to have weekly then bi-weekly trips back to Durham for quite a while and he will still not be ready to jump back into a “normal” routine, but you better believe we will be celebrating. The biggest hurdle in our mind is the day 100 bone marrow biopsy. That will be the moment that tells us if this was all worth it.
As I was just looking at a calendar of what our “day 100” will be, everything hit me. The date will be May 7th. That is exactly one day before our year anniversary of moving to North Carolina. Also, one week shy of the 2nd anniversary of my Dad passing and about two weeks shy of our 7th wedding anniversary. May is filled with so much emotion. If you would, please join us in prayer not only for us to get home but that the month of May could be one that will be filled with celebration. For both the life that we knew and shared with so many people we loved and also for the life that we will get to live together for years to come.
