3-03-09: Roller Coaster Week

Sarah has been having a roller coaster of a week. She went home Friday (w/Neutropenia) and managed to stay fever free until this morning @ 4:30AM. Dr. Van Hoff told us to bring her in with a measured fever of 102.7F. She'll be in the hospital until Thursday, maybe longer.

The VNA (home visit nurse) came to our house Sunday to draw blood and check Sarah's blood counts. She needed platelet and red blood cell transfusions so we went up to Dartmouth. More blood work at Dartmouth showed a cancer blast reduction in her blood from 45% (Friday) to 8% (Sunday). Todays labs showed another decrease from 8% to 5%. We were really thankful to God for that answer to our prayers.

Sarah's doctors at Dana-Farber are discussing Donor Leukocyte Infusion (DLI) for Sarah if her overall blast count (blood and bone marrow) can be reduced low enough. I believe the DLI would be used as part of a preparative treatment for a second Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT).

Sarah has been feeling lower than her normal self over the last several days. She has been "barfing" (Sarah's terminology) many times during the day for the last several days and her energy level is fairly low too. She does play and interact with her family and the doctors/nurses in between low points.

Pray that she'll start feeling better, have her energy return and reach remission again.

-Ben