(Courtney and Kristen April 2007)
I've been keeping this quiet until I had more information. I just posted this to Kristen's Transplant Blog.
I went with Kristen to her doctors appointment to make sure that she shared some of the health issues she has been having. Over the past 2 weeks or so, she has been nauseous at least 3 or 4 days a week. Many of them so nauseous that she hasn't been able to keep to her normal school routine. We saw her oncologist on Tuesday and were a little startled to find that her white count and her platelets had fallen below normal again. We were 90% sure this wasn't going to be a big deal but the other 10%...well, we weren't sure what to think. Outwardly we were calm but there was a little panic we were keeping on the down low. Today we had a follow up. Her platelets were down a little bit again and the blood work we were waiting on showed that she didn't have CMV. CMV is a virus that is relatively harmless unless you have a weakened immune system. So that left a little GVHD - Graft vs. Host Disease. The doc has increased her Tacro (short for Tacrolimus) and will be checking her blood labs a little more frequently. The Tacro is an immunosuppressive drug that is used with transplant. So say a few prayers that this is just a small blip on an otherwise non eventful transplant.
We've had it so good up until now that this was a might bit scary. It brought to earth some other issues. Kristen is pretty head strong. Duh! That's what has helped her get through the last year. She is headed up to Lawrence this weekend to visit some of her KU friends. Devin and I have a difficult time when she goes out from under our wings. It's even worse when we have the uncertainty of what is going on with her blood counts. I don't know why we feel differently when she is with us versus when she is on her own. Control. It's all about control. We feel we have some when she is with us or nearby. Pretty foolish? We have no control. We have faith. We have to. We have to push aside the fear and have faith that God is in control. We have to trust God. Why is that so hard? The hardest thing for us to do is to let go and let her live her life. After all isn't that what we've fought so hard for, a life. We could attempt to keep her confined but that would be stifling her natural exuberance. So pray with us for safe travel and an improvement to her labs.
