Second quarter (the next set of 25 days in the 100 day recovery journey) kicked off great! No mouth soars, no rashes, limited to no diarrhea and nausea - all things to celebrate! Doctors keep sharing that Louis (Duke) progress was “ahead of the curve” and inspiring for the staff.
🙌🏽🙌🏽 The appetite was loading (it is now back) , he’s awake more than he is asleep and more hours of activity. 
We left off awaiting blood test results for the amount of cells in his body that were Nae’s (sister and donor) v.  his and the BCA number which measures the amount of cancer in his blood. Doc shared that Louis (Duke) has considerably more of Nae’s cells in his body than his own - GOOD NEWS!
BCA number - This number is expected to fluctuate a bit and we were warned to not get worried if it were high. For reference, if this number is consistently above 40 the patient is considered to have Acute Myeloid  Leukemia ( ACL) . Below 40 is considered (CML ) Chronic Myloid Leukemia. When Louis (Duke) came in for transplant his number was 39. Results are in … BCA is LESS THAN 0.03 ! Less than 0.03 is considered REMISSION 🙌🏽 thank You Lord (Insert praise break). This is exceptionally good news! 

That’s Nuts  🥜 
Friday morning (2/5) Louis (Duke) wakes up at 6 am telling me he’s having trouble swallowing. Thinking it was the onset of a cold I got him a throat losseng and tea. He went back to sleep and about an hour later and his lip was swollen. He mentioned he had bit it in his sleep and thought nothing of it … a couple hours later his tongue, lip, and eye were swollen, throat scratchy and we were on the phone with hospital care team. After ruling out RSV and influenza  they transferred us to a COVID testing line 🤷🏽‍♀️. When asking about symptoms he said “I feel like someone is choking me”. The nurse immediately said get him to an Emergency Room. 
It appeared to be an allergic reaction but he had no known allergies. He was treated with Benedryl, steroids and an Epi pen then transferred to the BMT (bone marrow transplant unit). Around 10:30 pm he looks up and says “Babe I feel good like James Brown”. It had been atleast an hour since the Epi pen and he started to feel better. 
We believe this was an allergic reaction to a salad that contained nuts. Though he’s never had a nut allergy before, he now has a majority of Nae’s cells in his body and Nae is allergic to nuts. 💡 Now that’s nuts. Doc later ruled out the nut theory and concluded he’s allergic to Bactrum (medication). 

Id love to say things went back to normal after the reaction but we’re not quite out of the woods. He broke out on his face and hands. Though the breakout seems to have gone away on his hands it flares up on his face along with severe abdominal pain. After a 1.5 week hospital stay, several test, biopsy of his stomach and upper intestine the hospital care team diagnosed  Louis (Duke ) with moderate GVHD (grafs versus host disease) in his stomach. GVHD is basically the new cells fighting with an organ, in this case it’s the stomach. This brought on a decrease in  energy, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and more.
GVHD is common in 80% of transplant patients. It’s also one of the major reasons patients are monitored closely the first 100 days as it’s most common to occur within that time. Treatment: steroids and more meds.

We have so much to be grateful for in this 2nd + 3rd  qtr but the game isn’t over yet. We are on par to finish this quarter strong. Our team captain is doing very well according to the docs and taking it all in stride. 

next up: end of 3rd quarter report (day 75 of 100 day journey) 

Thanks for your calls, texts, prayers and messages.