Saturday
Today was a great day for Bonnie from an energy perspective. She had an opportunity to spend alone time with her mom for several hours, make frequent walks around the floor and watch a parade on Michigan Avenue from the elevator lobby atrium on the 5th floor. I (Steve) finally was able to get outdoors since Tuesday evening and walked several blocks from the hospital to the Lansing Center where my girls were working at the INCH homeschool convention. Bonnie mentioned to me she had hoped to purchase a few books at the conference to give away as gifts, so I thought I could go on the journey while she spent the time with her mom. It was therapeutic for me (Steve) to see and talk to many caring friends and also see my girls outside of a hospital setting.

Although she looks great on the outside and had the energy (which is amazing with all the medicines being pumped into her body), Bonnie still has a war waging in her blood. Her platelets dropped to 18,000 today so they gave her two units of platelet transfusion which raised her back up in the 60,000 range. Normal range is 150,000 to 400,000. Platelets are what cause the blood to clot so when the count is low like Bonnie’s the concern is bleeding and bruising so she has to be very careful. Most likely she will receive another transfusion of platelets tomorrow.

Her WBC count has dropped to 4,000 this afternoon from 8,000 this morning from 40,000 yesterday when the stronger chemo started. Keep in mind the object is to eliminate most or all of the WBC because there are more bad WBC than good and unfortunately that means the good WBC that fight infections (neutrophils) are also eliminated which means Bonnie is increasingly more susceptible to infection and virus during this treatment. Once she gets to 1500 WBC she goes under what’s called neutropenic precautions, meaning tighter restrictions on anyone coming into the room….gowns, masks, sterilized hands, etc.

From my understanding the last WBC are the most difficult to eliminate and thus the reason for a total of a seven day treatment. One of our doctors said it’s like having a lawn full of weeds that you apply Roundup on and most weeds are killed off quickly….similar to Bonnie’s WBC going from 150,000 down to 4,000 in a matter of 4 days with two days of oral chemo and two days of drip chemo. It’s those last few weeds that need to be dug up and replaced with new sod – which takes much more time to do than spraying weed killer – same goes for the last few WBC.

Thank you again for all the care, concern and prayers. Some have asked how they can specifically pray, other than for total healing for Bonnie. Please pray that she will continue to handle the chemo without pain or nausea and that her attitude will remain positive through this difficult time. Also pray for Cassandra, Caleb and Callie that they remain positive and don’t become discouraged. They know the seriousness of the situation, but they need continual reinforcing that it will be okay. The key is what I mean by “okay”. “Okay” is, that no matter what happens it will be okay because God is in control and he knows best, even when the outcome isn’t in line with our own personal desires. If they (the kids) can truly grasp and accept the concept that a) God is indeed always in control, b) that He is in control even in difficult times, c) that He knows what is best for each of us (even when we might not agree) and d) willingly submit to and accept God’s perfect will without condition, then that will be an answer to prayer and everything will be “Okay”.