Sunday (9/20/09)

Thank you for your continued interest in our ongoing medical situation. If you have been coming back to the blog regularly you found that we have been delinquent in updating it since Labor Day. There hasn’t been much to update as we have been waiting for the bone marrow donor to be lined up.

Since Labor Day, Bonnie endured seven days of an in-home IV of a strong antibiotic to ensure the staph infection she picked up at the hospital was completely eliminated. In addition, her white blood cells dropped this past Tuesday (9/15) so she became neutropenic again and had to resume injections of Neupogen. By Thursday, the WBC were back up and over 15,000, but her hemoglobin was low so she needed two transfusions of red blood cells on Thursday night.

The timing of all this once again gave us an opportunity to trust God with everything, because the timing is ultimately His, even if it doesn’t fit ours. It’s difficult to plan anything not knowing what the next day will bring from a physical perspective. Bonnie and I had been invited to attend a special event at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Cincinnati this weekend. We were hopeful to get away to the event for a change of scenery, however with her first being neutropenic followed by the low hemoglobin, it didn’t look like the timing would work. God was gracious to us, as everything fell into place enabling us to go. We had a wonderful time with friends and staff from the Museum. It was a well needed distraction for us.

Just before we left for the Museum on Friday, we received a great phone call from the Karmanos Cancer Center. The prospective donor that is the best match with Bonnie, out of the three that who are perfect matches, has agreed to be a donor, a 49 year old male. A transplant date has been tentatively schedule subject to a satisfactory physical of the donor which will occur this coming Tuesday. Bonnie is scheduled to be admitted at Karmanos on October 2nd which will be the commencement of the pretreatment to prepare her for the actual transplant day. Karmanos indicated that Bonnie will need to be admitted seven days prior to the transplant date to start additional chemotherapy which will again wipe out her WBC, including the stem cells in her bone marrow this time.

We are thankful and apprehensive at the same time with the timing of this. Our prayer has been that the transplant date would occur such that Bonnie would not need to go back to Sparrow for additional chemo treatments to maintain a remission status. Thankfully that prayer has been answered. At the same time, as we anticipate the long road ahead for Bonnie and the uncertainties that go with it; knowing that it is now right around the corner, is testing our anxiousness.

Prior to being admitted to Karmanos, Bonnie also has the anticipation of getting another bone marrow biopsy at Sparrow, which will establish a new baseline for Karmanos. You may recall from earlier blog posts, a bone marrow biopsy is not a picnic in the park, so Bonnie has this to think about as well.

Please pray for the following things:

1) That the donor’s physical will be satisfactory to continue the process moving forward.
2) That God will bless the donor in a special way and minimize the discomfort he may feel from the Neupogen injections he will need to stimulate his bone marrow for the production of excess stem cells.
3) That Bonnie will continue to see and experience God’s peace throughout this trial and as the day draws near that we relocate to Detroit for a few months.
4) That Bonnie’s strength and endurance will continue to improve over the next two weeks so she enters the process strong.
5) That our children will be spiritually strong, will work together and stay focused on their walk with God and their school work.
6) That we will continue to glorify God through this trial of suffering.

We still don’t know why God has allowed this and realize it is okay to question it, but we do know He has a greater purpose than we can comprehend with our finite minds. We have been encouraged to know that our situation has comforted others who are, or have experienced their own trials of suffering. The other day I was reading 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verses 3 and 4 stuck out at me with one of those “a ha!” moments. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 helps us to get a glimpse of why God might have allowed this, although this may only be a part of why:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

The comfort we have experienced from God has been incredible and in some cases indescribable. God is teaching us through this situation how to comfort others who are struggling. Please pray that God will continue to comfort us as Bonnie enters this next phase and that He will use us to comfort others.

One other praiseworthy item, I (Steve) only had to have a total of 7 radiation treatments instead of 3 weeks due to the negative PET Scan. So after Wednesday my treatment is complete and I am in remission. In five months I can have my Infusa-Port removed and hopefully have a full head of hair! Thank you for your prayers!

Steve and Bonnie