Sunday,

Well, it’s been a week and quite a bit has happened since the last blog post; some expected and others not so expected. If you recall from our last post, Bonnie had just completed a week back at the hospital for some consolidation chemotherapy and I had just completed my third cycle of chemo on Thursday August 20th.

On Wednesday this past week, Bonnie went to Sparrow labs for her every other day blood work. Wednesday afternoon our oncologist called and said Bonnie’s platelets were only 8,000 (normal range is 100,000 to 150,000) and she would need to come in as an outpatient on Thursday (the 27th) for two transfusions of platelets. Her white blood cell count was 4300 which is at the low end of the normal range (4000 to 12,000).

While we were at the hospital on Thursday, the doctors look at the ingrown toenail on Bonnie’s right big toe. The first two rounds of chemo back in May are still impacting both Bonnie’s finger and toe nails. Her large toe nails curled under on the sides and grew into the softer tissue of her toe causing a quite painful open sore. Following the platelet transfusions we contacted the podiatrist who had removed a previous ingrown toenail the week before when Bonnie was an inpatient at the hospital. The podiatrist got Bonnie in later that same day (last Thursday). He did the painful procedure, bandage Bonnie up and sent her home.

On Friday morning, Bonnie got another call from our oncologist informing her that she was now neutropenic based on the lab work they did following the platelet transfusion. As a refresher, neutropenia is when the white blood cells have been eliminated and the neutrophils (the good WBC that fight infection and disease) are zero. Had there been some indicator that she would be neutropenic on Friday; we would never have done the removal of the ingrown toe procedure.

On Saturday morning, Bonnie woke up and her big toe was swollen and red with infection. Over the course of the day the infection spread across the top of her foot and by evening it was three inches up the front of her leg. We called our oncologist and he wanted Bonnie to go to the ER right away. After seven hours in the ER and starting a strong antibiotic through and IV, they admitted Bonnie and moved her back to 5 West where we have spent a good share of 2009.

Thankfully, the infection seems to have receded and is responding to the antibiotics. Bonnie is still neutropenic and her platelets were back down to 8000 and her hemoglobin dropped to 6.1 (normal low is in the 12 range). Fatigue has set in due to the low hemoglobin. Today she received two more transfusions of platelets and 1 unit of red blood cells, with one more to come around 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Please pray that our stay will be short, her WBC will increase, the infection will subside, and that her platelets and hemoglobin will stabilize over the next couple of days.

As far as me (Steve), please to pray that the up and down side effects of this last round of chemo continues to subside. Just when I think I’m beginning to feel better, another wave comes over me that is difficult to describe. I have a follow up PET scan scheduled for this coming Tuesday to gauge the effectiveness of the chemo followed by 4 more weeks of radiation.

We are still awaiting the blood work results of the three potential bone marrow donors. We expect hear an update this coming week.

We continue to be blessed by your many prayers that lift us up to a holy God who sustains us through this trial. We are grateful for the nourishment we find daily in God’s word. It’s so easy to fall into trying to figure out why this is happening, particularly with the added issue of the infection, followed by the question of “what next”. We are grateful that God has allowed us to see a smidgen of His greatness and to understand that we will never fully comprehend His plan for our lives because His infinite breadth and width is greater than anything we can imagine. It helps to think in these terms to put things into proper perspective and to understand that God is in control of all things. Ecclesiastes 7:14 says:

“In the day of prosperity be joyful,
But in the day of adversity consider:
Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,
So that man can find out nothing
That will come after him.”

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

Steve and Bonnie