Pictures

Sorry for the delay. We are having trouble trying to find a way to put the pictures online. Sometime tonight we will put up quite a bit.

Malachi's cells are engrafting...she has 10 ANC as of today from 0 yesterday...God is good...Thank you all for praying , hoping and believing with us.....We will give you more details later in the day.

bmt update

Things so far have been progressing right on target. She has had minor complications do to mucusitis. On Saturday they are lifting the sibling ban at the hospital which will allow her to see her brothers and sister for the first time in about 3 weeks. Her transplant has yet to show signs that it has worked. The doctor said in around a week or two we will start to see the change happen.

Bone Marrow Transplant

Today our long dreaded transplant took place with a series of events that will continue to play out over the next 100 days or so. It all began with Malachi. This morning around 6am we took him in for surgery to harvest his stem cells. This surgery is kind of gruesome so do a google search if you are interested in what happened. Malachi came out of surgery with somewhat of a hangover that lasted around two hours before he became his self and began walking and talking again. Shortly before he woke they began placing his stem cells into Mikayla. With stress at it's max and imaginations running wild we expected the worse and seem to have come out with the best. Mikayla's body did not react in a fashion that would scare even the most timid of us. It was a huge monkey off of my back. Now that the stem cells are in we will continue to monitor Mikayla for a host of infections, difficulties, and reactions as her journey to 100 continues. Towards the end of this week her body will begin to react towards the many journeys she completed this week. Her chemo and radiation is just now starting to affect her mucus linings making her sick similar to eating bad food and feeling bloated with sinus infections. The stem cells will begin the task of breaking down her old cells and creating new healthy cells. Many things can go wrong and many things can go right in the next few weeks before concerns of damage from this week die down. We will continue to try to keep things up to date and keep everyone informed of the many highs and lows that are still left for our family to face. Thank you all

My Children makes me whole......

Thank you to all of you. My family is so blessed knowing that we are so cared for. All my family and friends all over the world are praying , hoping and believing with us. We often ask, why things happen the way they do, but we seldom stop and look around and the answer is just right there in front of you. My kids complete me..and when i see them hurt, I feel like breaking.. coming apart...but I remember the LOVE that completes us all and I am whole again. I ask , how many times can ur heart break until its done breaking...then I look at my kids my family and there is my answer....IT WILL NOT BREAK!!!!!!!!

Chemo is done

Chemo is done. She got sick few times but more yesterday. Her meds are given through her line except for 1. She will have NG tube put in today. This will help her get nutrition specially on days she is not getting anything by mouth and when mucositis hits her bad. Today besides NG tube , is mainly rest day. She will be done with having to go pee every 2 hours by 10:45 am. They had to make sure to goes to bathroom every 2 hours since Saturday due to the chemo drug risks to the bladder. Now we wait for tomorrow, the date of transplant. What I was told is Malachi goes in at 6:30 am to the O.R. , 2-3 doctors will do the procedure/harvest. He weighs 10.2 kilos , they will extract about 20 ml of bonemarrow per kilo of his weight. He will be taking iron sup. for next 8 weeks. After it's extracted , they take it to the lab, will take 6 hours because Malachi's blood type is different but that is not a problem. What will happen is Mikayla instead of being O+ after transplant she will become A+ like Malachi. Then we wait for Malachi's bone marrow to take over. Since they are siblings the risk of graft versus host is less. But we still hope that Malachi's cells don't think that Mikayla's body is an enemy and fight.
THis is what I have for now. Thank you for all your prayers and support. Thank you Lord for everything.

Radiation complete

Radiation was completed yesterday and her chemo started that evening. Overall I think she done pretty good. A little bit of belly sickness and some headaches. The chemo she took made her blood pressure go crazy. Along with the chemo she takes a pretty sizable portion of IV fluids. This is causing her to gain weight at around a pound a day. She looks like a rolly pollie. Currently she is watching daddy day care and eating ramen noodles.