Day +88

Day +88

Steroids are deadly. They can make you soar to unbelievable heights or dive into a dismal abyss. Because of Erica’s mouth sores that surface and play havoc with her whenever she attempts to eat plus other evidence such as a body rash, her doctors think its chronic GVHD. Hoping to eliminate or at least control the mouth sores to a certain degree, she was put onto prednisone steroids.

At the beginning, she was on a low doze, then they upped it to 100mg per day. For the past week, she has been feeling pretty lousy, being constantly fatigued, either sleeping constantly or not sleeping through the night at all. Not to mention that it’s playing havoc with her emotions to the extreme. She is irritable, forgetful and generally sad. However being the driving person that she is, she still tries to maintain somewhat of a schedule to keep her sanity.

Thank goodness Jonathan was here for a couple of days to balance things a bit. Gioia arrived from Switzerland via London last night and the girls, with Katie are off on a one day jaunt today to Carmel. Erica is so looking forward to getting away, albeit for only one night. She is sure antsy but you can’t really blame this foot-loose gal as she has been cooped up for the last 6 months.

However, the light is shining bright at the end of the tunnel. The 100-day mark is looming up ahead on 8/8/08, very auspicious in the Chinese calendar. 8 is always a very lucky number (as is today being Day +88 post transplant) and, for Erica, that date begins another chapter in her ongoing saga of her illness. All things considered, she is recuperating extremely well and despite all the discomforts her mouth sores bring, overall she has weathered the transplant very well.

Monday she will undergo her first bone marrow biopsy since the transplant and we will know for sure where exactly she stands. This is such a terribly painful procedure for any patient to have to endure without conscious sedation. Then on Friday, she will have her first clinic visit with her BMT doctor to find out the result of the biopsy as well as to access her future treatment.

Meantime, we have to congratulate her for being so patient, so enduring and so strong despite it all. We truly have to admire her spirit and courage. The past 2 ½ years have surely not been easy for her. She has come a long way since her first diagnosis.

Love you tons, sweetheart.

Mama-san