Psalm 10:17
"You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,"
We were talking at dinner tonight that it's been a while since we posted anything here. That's a good thing, because it means that everything is going extremely well. Tammy is driving on her own, and she's spent much of her time this week visiting with a friend from out of town who was here for her Mom's funeral. The family has meant a lot to us for years, as Tammy baby-sat this friend and her three younger brothers. She's now 43 and her youngest brother is 35.
Tammy's counts continue to go up, and the doctors continue to be pleased with her progress. Her hair is coming back in and life really is returning to normal. It's amazing how much God has blessed this journey.
We got some cool news a couple of days ago from our favorite nurse at KU Med Center. She wanted our permission to send a "I Fight Like a Girl" T-shirt to Robin Roberts of Good Morning America. As you probably know, Robin was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, the pre-cursor to Leukemia that was Tammy's original diagnosis in the fall of 2008. Robin recently had a bone-marrow transplant, and the nurses at KU wanted her to know that she could "fight like a girl"!
We are so thrilled that these shirts have had such an impact. We wanted them to be an encouragement, and it has exceeded our expectations.
The next big milestone for Tammy is day 180, which will be in mid-November. I'm sure we'll write before then. Please continue to pray for Tammy. Even though everything seems to be going perfectly, we know she's one bad germ away from a set-back.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Normal is Awesome!
Jeremiah 32:15 (The Message)
"The God of Israel, says, 'Life is going to return to normal.'"
We got some amazing, normal news today!
We had our appointment at the cancer clinic to get the results of the tests from day 100. To refresh your memory, Tammy had a breathing test, a battery of blood tests, and a bone-marrow biopsy back on August 24, her 100th day, post-transplant. We were pretty confident that the results would be good, because she has felt so good this time around. While the progress hasn't had as many big jumps as the last time, there have been virtually no set-backs.
Three years ago, one of the most important numbers, the CD4D count, which measures the strength of her immune system, was at 136, where above 360 is normal. They were pleased with that result in 2009, because it was a sign of steady progress. Well, today the results showed that her CD4D was 397! That's normal! There were other counts that were in the normal range as well this time that weren't anywhere close in 2009. I could tell you what they all mean, but I'd have to make up a lot of stuff. Let's just say that she's normal in a lot of ways much earlier than we expected.
Never have we been so happy to say that Tammy is normal. I've known that she is extra-ordinary as long as I've known her. (And no one has ever accused me of being normal.) But we are thankful for these results. It solidifies what we believed was happening.
Many of her restrictions have been lifted, much sooner than they were in 2009. She still has to be careful of being around large crowds, and she's not allowed to go back to church just yet (that's a hug-fest waiting to happen). But she's rolling down the tracks toward normality.
Normal never looked so good! Thanks for your continued prayers.
"The God of Israel, says, 'Life is going to return to normal.'"
We got some amazing, normal news today!
We had our appointment at the cancer clinic to get the results of the tests from day 100. To refresh your memory, Tammy had a breathing test, a battery of blood tests, and a bone-marrow biopsy back on August 24, her 100th day, post-transplant. We were pretty confident that the results would be good, because she has felt so good this time around. While the progress hasn't had as many big jumps as the last time, there have been virtually no set-backs.
Three years ago, one of the most important numbers, the CD4D count, which measures the strength of her immune system, was at 136, where above 360 is normal. They were pleased with that result in 2009, because it was a sign of steady progress. Well, today the results showed that her CD4D was 397! That's normal! There were other counts that were in the normal range as well this time that weren't anywhere close in 2009. I could tell you what they all mean, but I'd have to make up a lot of stuff. Let's just say that she's normal in a lot of ways much earlier than we expected.
Many of her restrictions have been lifted, much sooner than they were in 2009. She still has to be careful of being around large crowds, and she's not allowed to go back to church just yet (that's a hug-fest waiting to happen). But she's rolling down the tracks toward normality.
Normal never looked so good! Thanks for your continued prayers.
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