Resurrection day

Good news, everyone...

Nancy's counts started climbing today, right on schedule! It's Day 12 since her stem cell transplant, and this morning everything is higher than yesterday. This means that the transplant is engrafting, forming new bone marrow that is creating her new blood supply and new immune system. If all continues to go well, she should be coming home late this week.

(YAY! And....yikes! I've got to get the carpets cleaned! :-)

It seems divine that her resurrection is today, the Easter celebration. This is a major step in her recovery. To put this in perspective, there seem to be about four major hurdles, and she's clearing the third hurdle now:

        initial chemotherapy to put her leukemia in remission

        finding a stem cell donor

        receiving the chemo and stem cell transfusion, and creating a new blood system

        avoiding bad reactions between her body and the new blood system

Assuming her counts continue to go up, we are now entering the time when her new immune system and her body will adapt to each other. This will take several months, and she will be on medications and visiting the UCSF clinic twice a week.

But I want to be present for today, and celebrate her progress. There will be plenty of time later in the week to plan for the future, talk about how we are setting up caregiving for the next few months. Today is wonderful, just as it is. Happy Easter!

With love,

-tdc