The big picture is Bella was born with no immune system, and what little she had didn't work right (SCID). In part, she needed a BMT, her cure. Those new donor cells are transfused into her and essentially take over, making her a new immune system that works! Now the docs watch her counts so that the new cells have the perfect chance to take over. Not too fast or too slow, but just right, to prevent rejection and complications aswell. Bella's counts have been right on track and even a tad early. This is great news and as long as her counts stay up, it'll be good. They warn us that counts can go up n down before they just stay up. But Bella's haven't dipped, and been consistently on the up which is good too. This also means, the more she progresses the more meds she can come off of as her donor cells take over and essentially tell the doctors, "Hey, we got this."
Day +11
So here's a simplified way to understand her counts. (Numbers on her calendar.)
Today is +15, April 9th
WBC is White blood cell count. This is basically our immune system in its entirety. There are many types of white blood cells (AGC aka: Neutrophils are one of them) and WBC is a count of all of them together, represents them all, your immune system. A normal persons immune system WBC # is at a range above 7. Between 7-11 I believe. Bella is currently at 4.6!
AGCs are Bella's Neutrophils. These are the white blood cells that fight bacteria.
These have different stages of levels but normal range is above 1500, which Bella is now!
HBC is her red blood cells and PLT are her platlets. The docs monitor these too. For example her cut off is 80 for HBC. So she'll receive blood if that number dips. And it can dip for a few reasons. For example they draw blood from Bella everyday (which makes HBC # go down) and they draw more blood if she spikes a fever to check cultures.(she has had on n off engrafting fevers) So they have drawn a lot of blood from Bella lately and she received blood today.
Chimerisms: These are what they look at to see the 'take over' of donor cells in Bella's system. So eventually we'll want to see that Bella is 100% donor. They take their first look at these on day +21.
Day +14 Pics
Playing Bingo!
A cow says,"Moooo." A puppy says, "hhha, hhhaa." (panting sounds for puppy.)
Our wonderful friend Becky Warnke found this perfect shirt for Bella. Her signature quote. She still gets wonderful comments from eveyone about the poster that I put on her door, that has the same quote. (Thank you for that poster print Chantelle D.)
I take notes everyday about what we discuss in rounds with her doctors, questions I don't want to forget, etc. Since I use this note book everyday I figured I'd write some good reminders on the front.
April 4th
My sweet hubby took me out for some relaxing Easter sips.
Kyla, Lyle,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all the sharing you do....I imagine it helps you to process all that is going on. "Fierce" and "Brave" as are you both. You may believe you are only doing what you need to do, but there are people who would find such a journey overwhelming. Know that soooo many people are following your story and sending positive vibes your way! My thoughts are often about your situation.....
Continue to be strong for each other and your darling girl.
It gives us a sense of relief to know what we share is worth it, worth something to everyone reading and following. Thank you so much Cheryl
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