Abby's Journey Archive

We saw Dr. Ha at about 10:00 this morning. He is very pleased with Abby's progress--so pleased in fact that he consulted with Dr. Shafron and decided we can go home! The only thing we need to wait for is her 4:00 PM antibiotic dose.

The whole family (including Grandpa and Grandma and Shelly and Haley) came for playground time and lunch. She was overjoyed to see everyone, and by the end of lunch she was worn out. She's napping now.

I also talked to Dr. Graham today and he is setting in motion the things that will need to happen for our consult with him next week. Please pray for us as we weigh the risks and benefits. Steve and Amy reminded us that we still have a *choice* about this. From reading the abstract of Dr. Graham's study on treating recurrent brain tumors with bone marrow transplants, it appears that the event-free survival rate is somewhat encouraging. That study is 7 years old, so Dr. Graham has had lots of experience since then. We will see what he has to say next week.

Today was truly a great day. Abby went from being tethered to her bed by 3 separate IV lines, to moving freely about the room, using the restroom, eating whenever she could, and playing with some of her best friends, who couldn't wait to visit her at PCH.

She is now completely off the IV fluids, and is taking all her meds oral except for her antibiotic, which is being administered through her port with a portable IV pump much like the ones we have used in the past to do IV meds at home.

She also had a quick MRI today just to check for abnormalities post-surgery (bleeding, post-operative shifting, etc), and it looks good.

Dr. Shafron was off this weekend (originally to attend a meeting in New Orleans, cancelled it because he didn't really want to go, and promptly got sick himself), but left us in the capable hands of Dr. Ha (yes, that really is his name) a very kind young neurosurgeon who is now working in Dr. Shafron's practice.

Amy and I were also blessed in many ways today, not the least of which were 1) Abby declared Aunt Shelly could stay with her tonight, so we got to come home together and are spared the tag-team thing for a little while, and 2) Steve and Amy Glover came to visit us at our request on very short notice. We spent a solid two hours or so just processing together, as Amy and I begin to try to grasp what we are getting into with respect to the bone marrow transplant process. What a gift from God they are to us.

I guess there is a small (very tiny) chance that Abby will come home tomorrow. Monday is a more likely day depending on how tomorrow goes.