November 30, 2010

This past Sunday, Bonnie and I watched a pastor teach on accountability as we sat in her hospital room at Sparrow Hospital. Because of your faithfulness in praying for Bonnie and our family over these many months, we need to be accountable to you on keeping you up to date on Bonnie's status and the reason for the frequent updates.

Today Bonnie was transported via ambulance (no sirens or flashers) from Sparrow Hospital to Karmanos Cancer Center where she had her bone marrow transplant in October 2009. Yesterday most of the blood tests for viral infections we have been waiting for from Mayo Clinic came back negative. Deductive reasoning by the team of physicians is that everything (fevers, no white blood cells, mouth sores, etc.) Bonnie is dealing with is most likely Graft vs Host Disease. Sparrow Hospital doesn't have the expertise in providing the in-depth care required for this so they requested a transfer to Karmanos.

Nothing has really improved since a week ago Monday with the exception of the fever is now more or less low grade and for now has only been spiking into the mid-100 degree range, although tonight it has climbed to 101.5 degrees. She continues to endure extreme pain in her mouth, but reluctant to accept pain medications because of the side of effects. It isn't until the pain is almost unbearable that she succumbs to the realization that she needs the masking for relief. Please pray that she might be more accepting of these meds so her body can use the energy to fight the GVHD or whatever else is going on as opposed to the energy being spent on fighting pain.

The transfer from Sparrow to Karmanos today was seamless. More times than not, scheduled activity at the hospital doesn't usually occur as quick as one would want. The idea of transferring was introduced at 9:30 this morning and by 2:30 this afternoon the transport team was rolling Bonnie out of Sparrow. We arrived at Karmanos at 4:00 and by 4:45 the Chair and head physician of the BMT unit and Bonnie's Nurse Practitioner were already examining Bonnie and charting out an initial course of action.

They are running some new tests as well as redoing some of the tests Sparrow did this past week. In addition they are going to insert a PICC line (central catheter for infusing meds and blood draws). By doing so they can start Bonnie on a TPN (nutrition IV) so she can get the necessary nutrients that may have been missing from the smoothie shakes she has been drinking the past three weeks.

We know Bonnie is getting the best care and treatment here at Karmanos, but she is ultimately in God's hands. As more information becomes available we will certainly share it with. Thank-you for your faithfulness in praying for us.

Steve & Bonnie