Sunday
Today was another good day for Bonnie on the outside and the progress with eliminating the WBC on the inside is where the doctor wants her to be at this time. As of this morning Bonnie’s WBC count was at 2,300 and with another round of chemo today, she will be lower tomorrow. Her hemoglobin dropped again so she was given two more units of red blood cells and her platelets are still somewhat low so she is getting additional transfusion of platelet units tonight as I write this.

The chemo will continue until Wednesday or Thursday of this week, followed by waiting and monitoring for a few days. At this point the doctor projects another bone marrow biopsy to be done a week from Monday (tomorrow) to assess the true progress. Their objective is that the biopsy results will be clear – meaning no blast of young cells that grow quickly (which is the leukemia). Assuming it is clear, then they can start the next phase of treatment which introduces “growth factors” to boost the production of good cells and shorten the time to produce these cells. This process can take 10 to 20 days, but at this point it is an unknown.

Assuming everything progresses as planned, Bonnie will have a port surgically implanted prior to being discharged from the hospital for one to two weeks, upon which she will come back for the first of 3 additional cycles of treatment, which is five days of treatment followed by being at home for a month, followed by another 5 days of treatment, then home for a month, and then a final 5 day treatment. After that her progress will be reviewed. This would be the best case scenario at this point, but obviously we have a ways to go to be able to make that assessment.

As some of you already know, Bonnie will miss Cassandra’s graduation commencement as well as the open house we have been planning. We have dear friends that are doing so many things from coordinating meals, to coordinating ways to help and dissemination of information to planning the open house to possibly making a way to broadcast Cassandra’s commencement live to Bonnie’s room. THIS IS A SURPRISE FOR BONNIE AND STILL IN THE WORKS. IT HASN’T BEEN FINALIZED AS THERE ARE A LOT OF DETAILS THAT HAVE TO COME TOGETHER. YOU MAY SAY WHY PUT THIS IN THE BLOG IF IT IS A SURPRISE. SIMPLY THE FACT THAT MANY ALREADY KNOW THIS IS IN PROGRESS BUT MAY NOT REALIZE IT IS A SURPRISE SO I’M USING THIS MEDIA TO COMMUNICATE IT.

So….please pray that when the next biopsy results come in that it is “clear” and secondly please pray that our videocast comes together so Bonnie will be able to take part in the process. Bonnie worked so hard for 12 years plus kindergarten and I would like her to be able to see the closing chapter. With that I close for the evening. Thank you for your interest, support and prayers.