Rona Updates: Waiting, waiting, waiting

August 1, 2023

I know I missed the update last week and a few of you have reached out to see what is going on in our world. The truth is, we are just in a terribly long waiting period. The chemo and radiation gave the viruses a chance to jump up again, though it's starting to look like they are tapering off and maybe (??) going down. We should know more on that front in the next few days. Because of the zig-zagging of the viruses, we are also standing by to find out if I will be collected again for new T Cells to fight adenovirus. The team thinks they'll know more on Thursday, once they see the latest counts. 

Because of the bacterial infections we are also managing, Rona is getting something called granulocyte transfusions. Granulocytes are, essentially, white blood cell transfusions. The hitch is that the white blood cell count is what we monitor to see if the graft is starting to work and, ultimately, to ensure she is fully engrafted. The past two days, Rona has had some monocytes, lymphocytes, and neutrophils in her pre-transfusion blood draws. Usually, we would all be celebrating because that would definitely mean she is making several types of white cells; however, we can't be entirely sure these aren't just lingering cells from the granulocyte transfusions. This, too, should become clear in the next few days. 

In short, we are living in a lot of gray and hoping for some bright, shining rays of good news to break through the clouds soon. 

Please keep the prayers and good vibes flowing our way. They really do make a big difference.