Day -2

Today Rachel had Melphalan, which was her last dose of chemo!! Glad to have this part of the protocol over with. Actually today was better than yesterday. Rachel has not thrown up today and ate a piece of toast this morning and then about 4oz of chicken noodle soup this afternoon and more soup as I write this. She is still on anti-nausea meds and sleeps a lot, but she is feeling better than yesterday. She did exercises this morning and physical therapy came and worked with her so she was pretty exhausted after all of that. The doctors say she is doing good. Tomorrow is her total body irradiation.

The donor will have her marrow harvested tomorrow. She is doing such a selfless thing and we are praising God for this woman. Please continue to pray for her.

Tomorrow the chaplain is going to do a blessing for Rachel's transplant which will be Saturday. I will fill you in on those details tomorrow.

Day -3

Today was much the same as the last few days. Not much to comment on. They did try a new nausea medicine tonight that is suppose to work well for chemo patients and she did sit in a chair for about 30 minutes, but got sick again. So we head on to tomorrow...with her last dose of chemo! Pray that Rachel can be comfortable, and that her body is doing what it needs to do so it will accept the new marrow. Continue to pray for the donor.

Day -4

This Tuesday morning started out with the promise of being a better day, but after a shower and some exercises Rachel was vomiting and back in the bed. The doctors here are very good at trying to find the best meds/doses that work for Rachel. They really want the patients to be as comfortable as possible. So once again I say sleeping is a blessing and she has slept most of the past few days.
As you remember to pray for Rachel please pray for the donor that is giving their marrow on Friday. What an awesome thing this person is doing for someone they don't even know. Besides all of the tests they have gone through, they will also have this surgical procedure done, so please lift this person up to the Father. Tomorrow is the last day of the chemo Clofarabine. Thursday starts the chemo Melphalan for one day and the total body irradiation on Friday and transplant day on Saturday.

Day -5

Today was another not so good day. Rachel woke up sick to her stomach. . If she can sleep she does ok, but when she is awake she is nauseated. She did manage to get up and take a shower and then do some pt exercises early this morning in about 30 minutes, but after that it was all downhill. As I said yesterday, sleep is a good thing.

Thanks again for your prayers, notes and cards.

Day -6

First thing this morning Rachel didn't feel that great, but was able to get a shower and get some of her physical therapy exercises done before she started to feel really bad again which was around 9:30am. She had her second dose of Clofarabine and will receive 3 more doses of this particular chemo. Most of the day she has either been nauseated and vomiting or sleeping. Sleeping is a good thing. Tonight they started her on TPN..total parenteral nutrition which goes into her central line. Most all patients going through a transplant get this at some point when they stop eating. She can still eat anything she wants there are no restrictions.....but right not she doesn't want anything. She had another dose of nausea medicine around 10:00pm. Hopefully she will get a good nights sleep.

Update Day -7

The rest of the day went much the same. They did give her morphine for her headache and that seemed to help. They have been giving her meds for the nausea and that has seemed to be working. Thankfully she has been sleeping a lot.

Day -7

Today starts a different chemo in her protocol, Clofarabine. She is nauseated and has vomited w/blood. They have given her something extra for the nausea so hopefully that will help. They believe the blood my be from sores in her throat which is to be expected at some point, but she isn't in pain from that at this time. She is resting at the moment so that is good. Sorry to be graphic, but these are things for prayer. Will update later if any change.