Happy New Year

The Wunderle family Marty, Jill, Jim, Chad, Meredith and Rachel.

Rachel and nephew Eli

Kids decorating the tree.

Rachel heading out to a Christmas party.

We hope all of you have had a blessed Christmas season and happy new year. We had a wonderful time with family and felt especially glad this year to be all together for this special time. We had a little scare on Christmas Eve. Rachel started running a fever and it went to 100.6. So I had to call the doctor about 6:30pm. He said instead of going to the emergency room he would call in a strong antibiotic for Rachel. We were very relieved that we would not have to be going to the ER on Christmas Eve. It took awhile to find a pharmacy that was open at that time on Christmas Eve, but we finally did. During this time the weather was turning into a wintry mix, so needless to say I was glad when Jim and I arrived home. Rachel never did run a fever again after 11pm on Christmas Eve. It did continue to snow and we had a white Christmas! It was very beautiful and will be a special memory.

Some of the things we are looking forward to and praying about this new year for Rachel are...

getting her clinic schedule down to once a week

getting her central line taken out

coming off of the gengraf medication

most of all mobility improving

Your prayers this past year have meant so much to us. We thank you for taking this journey with us. I will probably make 2-3 more posts on this blog and plan to end it with our trip to Minnesota in February. For those not on Facebook I have included some pictures from Christmas. Wishing all of you a very happy new year!

Clinic appointment

Rachel had a clinic appointment this past Tuesday(a week ago). We saw Dr. Schaefer and Dana. They have been great to work with and we are so pleased that they agreed to follow Rachel here locally. They are on top of things and we feel that Rachel is continuing to receive excellent care. Next week she will have to go in for a blood transfusion. Her red blood count was low, as has been the cycle about every 3-4 weeks. So next Wed. will be the day. Last time it took most of the day so we will see how it goes this time. I also heard from Teresa, Dr. Orchard's nurse in MN. All test for day 100 came back great. The engrafment test showed 93 percent, which was down from the 99 percent it was previously, but she said this is not a problem for Rachel's disease. It could even be 70 percent, but they just want it stable. That is all of the news for the moment.

I never did post this when I first wrote it I was still trying to upload pictures. I do not know what the problem is, but I will go ahead and update.
Rachel did go in for the transfusion. This time she got to go to the transfusion center and it went much smoother and faster than the first time she received blood here. So the plan will be go get all blood she needs done there. Rachel has been feeling well enough to get out and do some Christmas shopping and visiting with friends. I believe a Christmas party is on the agenda for her tonight. She woke up during the night with a terrible headache and some nausea so I hope she will feel better when she wakes up.
Brittney, Stephen and Eli will be coming here on Christmas Eve and staying though the weekend. We are excited about seeing them and sharing the Christmas holiday with us all together....we are blessed.


We hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season.

Day + 120

Sorry it has been so long since I have made a post. Things are going pretty well since we have returned from Minnesota after day +100 testing. Rachel's recovery from the transplant is going well and she is feeling pretty good most days. She still has a day here or there when she feels nauseated, but it is controllable and not too bad. She gets to church and a few other outings a week. Rachel will be taking online classes next semester and has already gotten signed up for those.
We had a nice Thanksgiving at home this year. What a blessing it was to be together. On Friday we drove to Texas to see Brittney, Stephen and Eli. We had such a nice visit with them and we so enjoyed spending time with Eli.
On Saturday Rachel went to the mall with a friend and got a start on her Christmas shopping. She had a great time! Today Sunday we went to church and then put up our Christmas tree. I posted a few pics of Rachel with Eli and the kids putting ornaments on the tree. I really am enjoying all of this as I know in a few years they will all be grown.
Well I was not able to post the pictures tonight. Blogger will not let me. I will try again tomorrow.