Pokes, Prods, and Patience Needed- Transplant Delayed

 I’m writing currently as Ruth is recovering from a liver biopsy.  The past 2 weeks since returning to Portland was/is about pre-transplant workup. Just to let you all know, this isn’t a walk-in-the-park. She already had 1 week of testing in Seattle before we returned home. Just this past week alone, Ruth has had a bone marrow biopsy, lumbar puncture for chemotherapy, pulmonary function tests, CT scans, fibroscans, blood tests, Immunoglobulin infusions, and today a liver biopsy.  She’s seen her hematologist, gastroenterologist, nephrologist, and infectious disease doctors. Due up are pulmonologist and bronchoscopy — What a trooper she is.  After that though, hopefully she’ll be mostly done with testing. 

Now there’s both good news and bad with all the testing and consultations. 

The good: 

Her kidney doctor thinks her transplanted kidney will handle the stem cell transplant ok and are really excited to see if she can come off immunosuppressive medications long term since the bone marrow stem cells she getting from her sister will match the kidney her sister gave her 21 years ago. 

Also, her liver scan showed that she likely has recovered from liver injury 4 years ago (due to a different immunotherapy drug) but they’re doing a liver biopsy today just to be sure. 

Now the not-so-good news:  stem cell transplant is being pushed back 4-6 weeks. Ruth has had a lung infection that she hasn’t been able to clear for the past 5 weeks despite 3 courses of antibiotics. So there’s more studies to be had by the pulmonologist and infectious disease doctors.  Once they figure it out, she’ll need proper treatment and recovery time. 

She’ll be put back on immunotherapy in the meantime, which she had an unexpected rough time with last time.

Then the big worry is cancer coming back as more time goes by. 

So one of the big prayers we need is that her bone marrow biopsy she got last week continues to show a deep remission. That would bode well for the cancer staying at bay. 

Also figuring out and knocking out this pulmonary infection. As a doc, I’m personally worried about this one having seen her test results, but will spare you the details until we know for sure. 

A last prayer would be that immunotherapy goes smooth this time so we can actually enjoy part of the summer before transplant. Testing is just about done so if immunotherapy goes well, July could be a nice month for us as a family. 

For Ruth and I, we just need patience and to trust God through all this. 

Ok, before I close, I wanna leave you with one happy nugget to hold on to - because we came back to Portland, we got to celebrate Naomi’s 8th birthday with her! And again, we’re so so glad to be home and dealing with the set back here, with all your support and prayers.  

Roy 

Ruth loves sleeping from anesthesia! Beauty Sleep!