As background to yesterday's post, Suzie's oncologist had ordered tests to determine the level of IgG antibodies in Suzie's body. FYI, we've since learned, via WebMD, that IgG antibodies are found in all body fluids. They are the smallest but most common antibody (75% to 80%) of all the antibodies in the body. IgG antibodies are very important in fighting bacterial and viral infections. In a normal person, you would expect to find 565–1765 mg per deciliter. The hospital determined that Suzie had only 41 mg per deciliter! Not good, so they decided to inject her with Gamma Globulin and give her immune system the temporary boost it needed.

Turns out that infusing Gamma Globulin can be tricky. She flushed heavily at first, so they stopped the drip for an hour, gave her an additional round of preparatory drugs, and began anew. She did not flush this time, but it appears that this round of injections, plus the high levels of prednisone she is taking, precipitated the rapid and dramatic rise in blood pressure. Not fun!

Anyway, she remains in the hospital and will probably be released on Wednesday. Her BP is still fluctuating, but has not gone above 170, and needs to be weaned from her IV medications and back onto pills.

Love to all,

Mike

An event that seemed minor at first turned a little ugly Saturday afternoon when Suzie's blood pressure began rising. Went over 200 around 5:30 and climbed as high as 217. Several attempts with different medications to bring the systolic down failed and doctors were about to move her to intensive care when, at 2:30 Sunday morning, they decided to try one more medicine. Her systolic fell to 190 by 3, to 150 by 3:30 and to 142 by 4, thus ending the crises. We thank God because the last thing she needs is to suffer a stroke!

Suzie was admitted to the hospital yesterday afternoon because she was lethargic and running a very high fever. This is not surprising given that this is flu season and that her immune system is compromised. The good news is that this is not the cancer, all of her red blood counts look good, and it is not COPD, the concentration of oxygen in her system is 98%. Doctors think we caught her in the early stages of a bacterial infection and are treating her accordingly. It does not look like she is in danger, we'll post again once she is released from the hospital.

Mike

Happy to report that we had an enjoyable Thanksgiving, especially because Suzie's still in remission, still fighting rejection and still holding her own. We are already looking forward to the end of the month so we can see everyone again and celebrate Christmas.

We're delighted to report that our meeting with Suzie's donor went well. We met him, and his parents, at a restaurant in St. Louis where Bruce and Suzie had well over an hour to both eat and learn more about each other. He's as kind as we hoped and is even willing to spend time counseling a donor brought into the fold by the drive Lisa engineered earlier this year. This is all so amazing.

Last week, we traveled to Boston to spend time with Lisa, to participate in a 'Light the Night' fund raising walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and to help raise funds for the MPD Foundation. Although back to back Northeasters forced us to cancel on the walk, Suzie and Lisa raised more than $500.00 selling hand crafted items donated for this purpose by friends and family and/or items they'd made themselves. All who participated by crafting the items sold or in the sales effort are pretty kind themselves!

Talk about courage: all this has been achieved in spite of an acute bout of graft versus host disease. Left untreated, this caused a significant rash as well as painful swelling and itching in both of Suzie's feet. Doctors were able to offset these symptoms through the aggressive use of Prednisone but these treatments led to the loss of body weight and muscle tone as well as a significant increase in her sugar levels. We're tapering off now and are prayerful that we won't have another bout with steroid induced diabetes.

We'll keep you posted!

Mike

We've enjoyed good news and good times during the last couple of weeks. News that Suzie no longer needs to be on Bi-Pap therapy and approval from Blue Cross to replace a large, heavy, noisy oxygen concentrator with a lightweight portable that makes much less noise were followed by an enjoyable visit with Diana and Jeff, Suzie's sister and brother-in-law.

But the fun does not stop there! Suzie and I leave tomorrow for St Louis where Suzie will meet, and thank, the man kind enough and generous enough to donate the bone marrow products that have kept her alive since the transplant just over two years ago. Needless to say, this is EXCITING!

Love to all,

Mike

Today we received a mixture of disappointing and good news from M D Anderson:

There is no sign of the donor's cells in Suzie's bone marrow and the number of cancer cells continues to increase. %$@&^%@.....

Revlimid is helping us manage this disease.

Signs of rejection continue and our transplant doctor is of the opinion that some of the graft is still active. He hasn't given up hope that Suzie might experience a rebound.

Suzie's alive thanks to the transplant and we've enjoyed many moments together that would have never happened were it not for the donor's act of kindness.