Tuesday,

After the most miserable night of pain and nausea, we received wonderful news from the doctors this morning that the donor stem cells have engrafted in Bonnie’s bone marrow cavity! This was the next step in the process we have been patiently waiting for. Overnight, her White Blood Cell (WBC) count went from 600 to 5200 which indicates engraftment.

We are rejoicing and thanking God for this news. We are grateful that He created us humans with incredible minds and bodies. Giving us as people the minds to develop medical procedures like a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor along with His creation of a complex stem cell having a protein as part of its makeup that instinctively knows to penetrate the bone and reside in the bone marrow cavity to begin to produce new blood cells. All glory and honor and praise belong to Him alone.

With the WBC count coming back, the mucositis (mouth and throat sores) will slowly start to subside, but for now it is somewhat worse than yesterday, so Bonnie is still uncomfortable and in significant pain. As soon as she can get to where she can take most of the medications orally as opposed to IV form she will be discharged from the hospital and moved to outpatient housing. This could occur as early as this Friday or next Monday. This is about a week earlier than expected.

One thing that has helped in the process is Bonnie’s diligence in walking. In yesterday’s blog post, I speculated that before the evening was over that she would finish the balance of her two mile goal, which she did. Even though the night was long for her, she already got her two miles in today as well.

The nausea continues today and the anti-nausea medication isn’t helping too much in keeping down the little bit of Ensure, Breeze or chicken broth she drinks. Continue to pray that the nausea will subside.

The Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD) is not part of any of the side effects Bonnie is currently experiencing. GVHD will show up in some form typically between 30 and 100 days post transplant. So Bonnie is still very susceptible to complications, but for now we are rejoicing that she is moving towards the next step of outpatient housing. This phase will still require us to stay in the Detroit region for approximately the next 75 or so days. The actual time depends on her progress and the frequency of visits to the outpatient clinic which is part of this hospital.

Thank you for your continued interest in Bonnie’s progress. We appreciate all your prayers.

Steve & Bonnie