Engraftment

 

 

Good news today.  Kristina’s in the engraftment stage.  There’s still the Mucositis and all that goes with it, but the general trajectory is good.  With Cancer you need to grade on a curve, as A+ doesn’t really feel like A+, but if there was a silver lining a few days ago, the good news is clearer and backed my metrics today.

What, exactly, is engraftment?  So glad you asked.  The stem cells have found their way into Kristina’s bone marrow and are doing what they should be doing.  By the process we described earlier, they are starting to make good blood cells. 

Kristina’s blood counts are getting better.  Platelets, Crits, and those crime fighting Neutrophils are all up.  Neutrophils count is 510 for those of you keeping score at home.

She’s also getting prepared to leave the hospital on the 25^th or 26^th.  Her care team is weaning her off the TPN feeding tube (IV feeding that bypasses the digestive system) and getting the ‘ol esophagus back up and running.  First getting food down then keeping it down are the two goals.

They are also converting her meds to oral meds to ease her time at home.

Kristina also needs to build back some strength – walking around when she can.

All this while she’s still fatigued.  With limited energy she’s requesting ‘no visitors’, but in the case there is a visit, only one at a time.  Even talking on the phone takes effort and she needs to harness her strength.  She’s says she’s still pretty shaky.

Her childhood friend, Lizie, is coming in on the 25^th and will take the first stint at caregiving.  After she gets home, she’ll still need to visit Fred Hutch every day as they closely monitor her progress.

That’s it for this morning.  More news when there are developments.