Rescheduled Visit w/Dana Farber

Well, Sarah is having an interesting week...

On Tuesday afternoon, the folks at Dana Farber scheduled an appointment with us for Thursday at 9:30am. They were going to answer "all" our BMT questions and check out our two BMT donors and Sarah. The big meeting with the BMT team was actually scheduled.

On Wednesday, Susan and her dad took Sarah to her current hospital for a regularly scheduled chemo treatment in her spine. Sarah did fine, felt pretty good and came home same day. So far so good. Things were progressing as expected (or planned).

Wednesday evening around 10:00pm (Susan and I were headed to bed), one of Sarah's doctors called and said we needed to head back to the hospital right away. Apparently some blood work done that day came back with an indication that her PICC line was infected. The doctor said her PICC line would need to be removed that night and it would be replaced with an IV! We were a little shaken by this since we had recent experience with IV's for Sarah. We also new what was involved to remove the PICC line. In addition, these two procedures would be done with Sarah awake on a mild sedative. Obviously, we were not looking forward to the 1-1/2 hour drive to the hospital. I will not go into the gory details, but the staff at the hospital failed to get the IV in after six horrific attempts all over her body. It was now 3:00am. The sedative was not as effective as Susan and I would have preferred. For now the PICC line is still in and they are treating Sarah with heavy dose antibodies to kill every germ known to man in her system. The doctors tell us the blood work done may have been contaminated, so they are redoing it. Sarah will be able to go home within a couple of days if her PICC line has no germs in it and her neutrophil count starts rising (enough). Please pray for her PICC line and neutrophil counts to rise. We really want her to come back home.

Needless to say, we did not make our appointment with the BMT team at Dana Farber today. However, Sarah's doctor did have extended discussions with the BMT folks rescheduling our visit for next Tuesday. She also determined with the BMT team the earliest admission date of July, 7 for Sarah at Dana Farber. We will not be admitting Sarah on July 7 though since a lot of prep activity is required. Sarah has to go to the dentist, have her hearing checked, have her eyesight checked, and a lot of other stuff to. The good news is the folks at Dana Farber are ready for her. We are thinking 2-3 weeks for admission at this point. And if your wondering, Susan is due to deliver the baby in 2-3 weeks too. It's not as easy as scheduling the BMT later either. If we wait too long, Sarah will need another "block" or round of chemotherapy before her BMT and we don't want that to happen.

We will wait (and pray) and see what God has in store for us. We will also have faith that what he has in store for us is meant for good.
-Isaiah 40:31

A Weekend With My Family

Sarah has been doing really good since she was released from the hospital this past Thursday. She has had a lot of energy and is only taking a couple of drugs and getting one shot in her leg every day at home. She is not eating great, but she is eating and drinking enough.

Yesterday we went to get ice cream at our favorite family ice cream shop. It was outside and they never have a crowd. Fortunately for us, no one else came the entire time we were there. The video of Sarah and Christopher shoveling is at the ice cream shop. We decided to go all out this weekend and met with the small group we fellowship with on Sunday afternoon. It was good to meet with them and chat afterwards. It has been a while since we've done that and after the BMT, we will not be able to meet for quite some time I think.

We hope to recieve a call from the folks at Dana Farber tomorrow and arrange for our first meeting with the BMT team. I did a little more research on BMT facilities tonight and I'm still pretty happy with Boston Childrens Hospital. Not much else to report on. It was a pretty normal weekend with my family.
-Psalm 34:3-4