New Post!

I realized that I haven't posted for much of the week. (I've also been gently reminded by a few people that I haven't posted in almost a week!) I guess we've just been having too much fun. Albert has been in town, which has been wonderful for all of us. He left for Boston today, and it was sad to see him leave. It was just really wonderful for Joe to spend some time with his brother.

The main excitement for this week is that this morning, Joe received his THIRD CMV negative result. Yup, that's right. Joe has been CMV negative three times in a row. This being negative stuff is really working right now!

Early in the week, a whole bunch of Joe's medications were discontinued. His IV pole looked so bare. However, each day more drugs have been added for this reason or that reason. A lot of it is precautionary. Joe continues to spike fevers and continues to be on oxygen. Because Joe's immune system isn't up to par it is this constant debate with the doctors. Overload Joe with drugs to prevent/treat all kinds of possible ailments, or take away the drugs at the risk of having some evil infection appear and cause trouble? Do certain tests that may possibly cause more damage than good, or play the guessing game? Each day you learn more and more what an inexact science medicine can be. It can be really frustrating. I know that Joe is in good hands, both in the medical sense and the spiritual sense. But until the day that Joe is MDS-free, our days will be filled with lots of back and forth "stuff" which is tiring.

Although Joe is still using oxygen, he is not as dependent on it. Joe is able to be off of it for an hour or two at a time. The only time now that Joe definitely has to stay on the oxygen is while he is sleeping. This is a good sign. Recently there has also been a great debate over Joe's lungs. All of the doctors in various fields have different thoughts. Some are convinced Joe had CMV pneumonia that was caught early. Some feel that is highly unlikely. Some feel that Joe is definitely getting better and healing, others feel that Joe needs to be treated for infections that might possibly be lurking. Okay, now I'm basically repeating what I just said in the previous paragraph!

More confusion. Joe has a rash that has been flaring and fading throughout each day. It is really strange, because initially it looked like the GVHD was returning. Now, it is starting to look different. Joe may get a skin biopsy to see if the cause can be pinpointed. Maybe it is a drug reaction? It is especially strange, because we learned yesterday that Joe's graft is even worse off than we initially thought. The 35% graft result was very preliminary. We had that information the day after Joe's bone marrow biopsy. Now we are hearing that Joe had practically no donor cells. More in the area of 1%? By now, this news is neither good nor bad. Although the main focus of Joe's treatment this past few weeks has been the CMV and Joe's lungs, it has been made more and more clear that a second transplant is pretty inevitable. Joe will likely be given induction chemo after his lungs get even better, and that would pretty much eliminate all of the donor cells anyway.

There we have it. Some good news. Some bad news. Some neutral news. We just continue doing what we have been doing. We're taking each day one at a time and giving everything up to God. Thank you everyone for continued prayers and love.

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A very, very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Joe's mom. She has been such an angel. Moms are really great to have around. :)

Congratulations to my cousin I-ju & David - proud new parents of a baby boy! We can't wait to see pictures. (hint, hint.)

Congratulations to Ariel and David who are graduating from radiology residency!
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I only have part of my thank yous for today, because I don't have my handy-dandy notebook with me. :) I'll have to do the rest another time.

Thank you Albert for hanging out with us all week, watching movies, and sharing stories. You are a great little brother!

Thank you Pei-chen for the really cool Steelers keys. What a cool surprise!

Thank you Alex and Lauren for the cards you made for Joe. The two of you are real artists!!!! We have the cards hanging in Joe's room, and they really brighten his day.

Thank you Nancy for the wonderful serenade. :)

Thank you Alivia for the really cute card, and sharing your extensive vocabulary with us. It really made us smile.
Thank you 2nd Auntie for the card, and congratulations on being a grandma!!!!!!
Thank you Auntie Mary and Uncle Ming for the card. We really appreciate your love and encouragement.