Diane Jensen: Day 19, much ado

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Day 19, much ado

Had a couple real tough nights with fevers and breathing is more difficult. Pulmonary doctor came, going to do move her to ICU and then do a bronchosppy. He did an ultrasound it showed fluid and some collapsed lung on right lung as well as some fluid on left lung. Dr suggests doing the bronchosppy today. In ICU and WILL be doing the bronchosppy within the next hour or so (4:45 pm now). She is sleeping right now. My son, her brother in law and I gave her a blessing. She will be in the ICU for at least a day or possibly two. She has been getting meds to treat the fungal infection and the fevers. She had been getting rid of fluid, 4 pounds so far this last 24 hours. They did the bronchosppy and found some pneumonia and not a collapsed lung. Now we wait for lab results about the fluid in her lungs. Thanks for all the prayers and fasting, we feel their strength.

3 comments:

patsyJanuary 4, 2015 at 5:20 PM
Diane......we are thinking of and praying for you....hang in there and get better fast!! Love you!!
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The Schaff FamilyJanuary 5, 2015 at 7:35 AM
Oh Diane, fighting for your life is so exhausting. Do not doubt for a minute all of the love and affection we have for you. We are praying that you, Dennis and all the family will be blessed with peace and comfort.
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ValFitMomJanuary 5, 2015 at 12:49 PM
We LOVE you guys - fasting and praying for you!!
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Diane is very thankful for any well wishes, even if she is not able to respond to all of them.

Diane's MDS Diagnosis

The hospital encourages visits when she is home or inpatient. Call first to insure she feels well enough at any particular time for visiting. Her immune system is severely compromised, so we ask you not to visit with young children or if you are ill. Currently she is an outpatient.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) is a bone marrow disease much like cancer. If left untreated, it will eventually lead to the failure of the bone marrow (requiring transfusions) or Leukemia.

The only way to prevent this is undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Presently, her blast counts are increasing faster than expected but have not reached the level of Leukemia. Her blood counts are lower now and she has had a transfusion to help with this. She is to proceed with the bone marrow transplant now because of how rapidly the MDS is progressing.

Diane will enter the LDS Hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit on Wednesday, December 17^th. She will undergo alternating rounds of chemotherapy for about 2 weeks. The chemotherapy will kill the blood producing cells, as well as her immune system.

Once the blast counts are reduced enough, then Diane will receive a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant. Diane’s sister, Tracey, is a half match and is to be the stem cell donor. However, effort is still underway to get a full match in time for the transfusion. The purpose of the transplant is to have the healthy stem cells replace the unhealthy ones killed by the chemotherapy (in the bone marrow). Once the transplant is done she will be on medicine to prevent rejection for some time (estimated 6 months to a year).

Mid term bone marrow biopsy coming up on (day 17) Friday, Jan. 2 nd. Find out if more chemo might be needed after the results of that test come back. Then another biopsy about day 35. Transplant could take place around day 42 the doctor said.

At this time (June 30) no transplant is scheduled. The disease became active again about mid June. Her blast numbers increased rapidly within just a weekend. Had they been able to do transplant (June 8) it would NOT have been successful, and she would have gone thru much trama for nothing. She has started another round of chemo aimed at controlling the MDS to lower blast levels.

Both the chemotherapy and the stem cell transfusion will be very hard on Diane. We ask for your prayers of strength and comfort on her behalf.

This site will be updated with Diane’s progress.