May 2017 be the year for renewal and health. That’s a prayer I say a lot in hopes that my daughter will be seeing the end of cancer this year and be able to grow up in peace and happiness.
This Christmas has been rough, I didn’t send out cards this year, we just have too much going on. I’m sorry to all of you who usually get a card from us, let’s see what 2017 brings.
Update on the B.M. transplant:
Danielle is going in for surgery tomorrow to get her Hickman port placed – this will be used to deliver the new cells into her body. We are nervous as any surgery is risky and she only has 6 days to heal before her intense chemo begins.
We then check her back into the hospital on Dec. 28th, this is -8 days and she begins her chemo. The chemo she is getting will destroy her existing immune system, she will lose all of her hair and she isn’t too upset about that as mom will not be urging her to wash or comb it. I swear there are days, she wishes her teeth will fall out too, so I don’t harrass her to brush them!
She will immediately start anti seizure meds as the first couple days of chemo can cause seizures.  The next couple days she starts another type of chemo that has very corrosive properties and on day 3 she will have to be woken up every 2 hours to use the restroom. She will not be a very happy camper with only 2 hours of sleep in between wakings, but that portion will only go on for 2 days. Hmmm, this brings back memories of how she used to wake me up every 2 hours for feedings.
This chemo will also be very harsh on her digestive system causing a lot of nausea and other unpleasantness I won’t go into, but needless to say, I now see why we encouraged all the weight gain. I pray it was enough, but we will bring her anything/everything we can that may entice her to eat while going through this…oh why of why doesn’t Mr. Bento deliver yet? Dad and I need to check into Uber Eats…lol
After 7 days of chemo, she will get one day of rest, then we do the B.M. transplant. Once that is done, we have a very dangerous possibility of her body rejecting the new cells or of developing a condition known as graft versus host disease. These are both situations we do not want. Her chances of success are 50%. Please pray for my baby girl. Her father and I are so scared, we cannot even consider the possibility of losing her. This world is a much better place with her in it.
We will try to update you as we know more.
Thank you and have a Merry Christmas, we’ll see you in the New Year.
-Mommy
PS, we’ll put a little more weight on her at Christmas. I’m pretty sure for dessert we’ll get her favorite pie, PUMPKIN. She needs all the reserve she can get to make it through this.