Awww--Ain't That Sweet?

We have neutrophils!  ANC this morning is .2 and white blood cells are .3!!  It's beginning to look a lot like an immune system!  :)

Awww--here's a little 'phil--isn't it cute?

On top of that Kaitlyn's shingles are resolving nicely, her kidney function indicators are back down to normal,  and she's eating well and looking good!  If her counts are up again tomorrow--she's outta there!

Expect the Unexpected

Darn.  I wasn't expecting this to be the next post.  I was expecting to say that we're done, but that was before shingles.  And Acyclovir.

Acyclovir is an anti-viral medicine that the doctors started Kaitlyn on as soon as her shingles were diagnosed.  Viruses pretty much have to run their course, but there are some anti-virals that can shorten them and lessen the intensity which is especially important in immuno-compromised patients like Kaitlyn.  Acyclovir works great!  Her shingles were not painful or itchy and they were drying up quickly.  Yay!

But last Saturday Kait started having some pain and other issues. On Monday morning she was continuing to feel miserable and her labs (they draw them every day now looking for a bump in white cell counts) showed an irregularly high level in her creatinine which is an indicator of kidney function, so she was wheeled down to ultrasound.  Sure enough when the results came back they found that her kidneys were swollen and inflamed ("insulted" they said).  A nephrologist came to consult on the issue and guess what "insulted" Kaitlyn's kidneys--Acyclovir!  Sigh.

The good news is it's an easy fix--stop the Acyclovir.  The other good news is that her counts haven't "bumped" yet, so all of this hasn't really delayed anything.  The bad news is that since her white cell counts haven't bumped it's risky to stop the Acyclovir.

Where oh where are you White Blood Cells?

A Bump in the Road

Shingles.

Bone Marrow 101--uh...make that 91

Big week!  Daddy comes tomorrow, Mallory and the grandkids on Wednesday.  The question of the week though is when will Kaitlyn's blood cells bump up?

Just to review, once a chemo-interrupted bone marrow starts producing again it generally goes white blood cells first, red blood cells next, and finally platelets.

This morning's labs show a small increase in Kaitlyn's red blood cells which probably means that the white blood cells are also in production, but are racing around repairing chemo damage in which they must give their lives in the line of duty so they don't show up in the lab results yet.

The point is:  Kaitlyn's bone marrow has started producing blood cells again!  We are down to the last few DAYS!  Woohoo!

The State of Kait II

 The recovery part of this round has been relatively smooth so far although within the last 48 hours Kaitlyn has developed some type of inflammation in her mouth--not mucositis although she does have a slight case of that as well.  At first we thought it was a wisdom tooth trying to break through, but the dental doc says no it isn't.  Kaitlyn told me that the doctor said it was interesting.  I prefer--you guessed it--borrrring. Yawn.  Hopefully it will turn out to be just that.

Meanwhile, I think we may be down to the last week of hospital stays!  I'm estimating that Kait's counts should come up within the next 7-8 days.  I really hope I'm right because she is anxious to be done with hospitals and isolation and handfuls of pills morning and night and all the other lovely things that go along with AML treatment and get on with life.

It's Orange Feather Boa Day!

Kaitlyn's last chemo at 5:00 a.m. came and went quietly -- but in my heart I was cheering that the infusions are finally over.  I figured out this morning that over the span of these last 5 months Kaitlyn has had 63 doses of various types of chemo meds which have caused:

nausea and vomiting,
mucositis,
c-difficile,
all of her hair to fall out (eyelashes, brows, etc.),
her nails to die and break off,
the skin to peel off her hands and feet,
the lining to peel off the inside of her mouth,
depression,
loss of concentration,
insomnia,
numerous pains and high fevers,
a loss of appetite which resulted in treatment-induced anorexia,
severe colitis,
panic attacks,

AND--

the complete remission of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.

Addendum:  Here's the link for those who don't know about the boa.

How's Casey?

He is doing about as well as you would expect a loving husband and father whose family had been put through these last 6 months to do.

Dad & Kaitlyn August 2008

I think Kaitlyn's road has been harder on Casey with all of us being so far away than it has on me.   He is a family man bereft of family who has been left to the worry of wondering what is happening to his "Sweetie-Peetie" (Kaitlyn) accompanied by the frustration of not being here to be with her during such a trying and stressful time.  He's been missing Eden and Ezra a lot as well and often asks me concerning how they're doing adjusting to being here, etc.  People here sometimes ask me how long Casey has been gone.  He isn't gone...we are the ones who are gone.

Early on in this journey we didn't know what to do with the house we have on Saipan or if would remain residents there or move or what.  Casey felt like we should hold on to the house at least for a while, so we have done that.  He works hard not only to provide the money to keep us here and maintain a house there, but to also keep my focus on Kaitlyn and Eden and Ezra and not on "Yikes!  How are we going to do this?!"

He gets a lot of support from the prayers of friends and family on Saipan as well as here in the States and other places (I'm thinking of you Lee!).  He also gets great strength and support from our family away from family on Guam--the Shoemakes--who also happen to be our business partners. Instead of the "all you can do is pray" attitude, we are more the "the most important thing you can do is pray!" kind of people, so faith and the support of everyone's prayers means everything to him.  To us.