Thankfully the last several days have been fairly status quo. There was one concerning episode where mom had a mild fever Thursday night. Out of an abundance of caution, the doctors ordered urine and blood cultures and a chest X-ray to make sure the fever wasn’t caused by an infection. Thankfully, the fever resolved, all the tests have come back normal so far, and the chest X-ray showed no signs of infection or fluid (a great improvement from the X-ray mom had in early April). 

The doctors continue to test mom’s blood two times a day. They’re keeping an eye on platelets and red blood cells and giving transfusions as needed. They’re also watching the blood counts to see if mom’s body is recovering (which would indicate the blast cells have been illuminated). The last few sets of labs have shown slight improvements in moms blood counts (aside from transfusions), which is very encouraging, and has meant fewer transfusions have been needed. 

With fewer transfusions, mom has also been able to get more sleep. We also brought in another white noise machine and a table to put it on by the door, and that has helped block out the very loud hall noise that has often disturbed moms sleep. Thank you all for your prayers for mom - she’s feeling much better with the improved sleep!

We also have some news on the stem cell donor match process - all kits have been sent out to my mom’s siblings. They each have a 1 in 4 chance of being a match. The doctors also checked mom against a global list, and she has 136 possible matches! They’re working down the list to cross match those and see if any are truly a match, but this is an encouraging number. Between mom’s siblings, us kids, and the global database, we’re optimistic mom will find a match. Please pray for the doctors as they determine which match will be best for mom. (And for the donors!) 

I was finally able to visit mom again on Friday. It was a shorter visit, but we were able to talk, open and put up some of her cards, eat lunch together, and check out an origami kit from Anne DeLong (we only got through separating out the pieces, but we did have fun haha). Mom also enjoyed perusing a book from Aunt Sharon about the “sound of a wild snail chewing”. The title definitely intrigued her! 

Mom was also rather upset and perplexed that her little Mu (the smiley phone holder give to her by the art cart artist) had randomly gone missing… thankfully, after emailing the team, they were able to find her a replacement. She was happy to have the smiling little yellow face back on her table. :-) 

We were also blessed here with meals from dad’s cousins Kim & John Watts (and a nice visit!) and a co-worker of Aaron’s. We are so grateful for the time this frees up for us to support and be with mom, and of course for the delicious food. 

As always, thank you all for you continued prayers and support. 

Love,

~Bethany