Thursday, November 18, 2010

November 18, 2010

It can’t be said enough, thank you again for your prayers and interest in Bonnie’s condition. We continue to labor over future decisions on what to do, although if you were to ask Bonnie today, she wouldn’t do another bone marrow transplant. Any final decisions are a few weeks away, but she is more than convinced that she doesn’t have the strength to go through it again. I don’t blame her, nor do the kids, if she chooses not to do so, as she has been through a war the past year and a half.

In the past few days her physical condition has declined a little. We are not sure how much of the fatigue is from the radiation or from something else. Her mouth sores continue to prohibit her from eating solid food, so her diet consists of protein shakes. She had blood work done yesterday and the results are a little concerning. Her hemoglobin continues to decline so the doctors have given orders for two units of red blood to be infused tomorrow (Friday). This is a 4 to 6 hour process and always carries the risk of allergic reaction, so please pray that the process will be without incident. Hopefully this will increase the hemoglobin and give Bonnie some much needed energy.

Equally concerning is the White Blood Cell (WBC) count which has fallen to 900 (normal range is 4,000 to 12,000). Of the 900 WBCs, only 360 are neutrophils, the important WBCs that fight infection. Normal ranges are 65% to 80% of the WBCs being neutrophils and Bonnie is only at 40%, making her neutropenic. The last time she was neutropenic was immediately following the bone marrow transplant in October 2009. We don’t have a good answer at this point why this has occurred, as in the past it always occurred following chemotherapy. If the leukemia were flaring back up in her bone marrow and peripheral blood, her WBC count would be quickly increasing with blast cells. The problem with being neutropenic, in addition to the susceptibility of infection, is the temporary postponing of her final 5 radiation treatments. It’s radiation therapy policy to suspend radiation treatments when a patient is neutropenic.

On the flip side, the doctors do not want to give Bonnie neupogen, which is an injection to stimulate the bone marrow to produce more WBCs, as they don’t want to stimulate any existing leukemic activity. So, we wait it out to see if the numbers come up and improve and most likely she will have another blood draw on Sunday.

Tomorrow night (Friday) is a special evening out that our family has celebrated with another family for over 15 years; dinner, followed by Silver Bells in the City and the lighting of the Christmas tree at the State Capitol. Bonnie and I missed it last year while we were living in Detroit after the bone marrow transplant. We were looking forward to it this year, with Cassandra coming home from college, so we could all be together. With Bonnie’s condition it doesn’t look as though she will be able to go, which is a little discouraging and disappointing to all of us. Please continue to pray that she would experience God’s peace, would regain her strength and that her WBC count would come up to normal levels. Thank-you!

Steve and Bonnie

6 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the update!! Praying for His rest and peace for you all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bonnie & Steve,
    We will continue to pray for Bonnie, and you, too, Steve. My best to the kids. I love you all, and just want to take this all away. Pleas know I will do anything I can for you.
    Always, Sandy Jochumsen

    ReplyDelete