Diane Jensen: Day 22, good numbers increasing

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Day 22, good numbers increasing

Good news today: "Neutrophil granulocytes (also known as neutrophils) are the most abundant (40% to 75%) type of white blood cells in mammals and form an essential part of the innate immune system. They are formed from stem cells in the bone marrow." (Wikipedia) The number of neutrophils has increased from 200 to 700 since yesterday, this is very good. She still has breathing issues and weakness and fluid retention but overall feeling good. Doing walks again, tiring but required and building for her systems. Still no fevers, another tender mercy. Both sets of feet, Henry's and Diane's are constantly getting tangled in the tubing, it has driven her nuts today....

10 comments:

wendy smedleyJanuary 7, 2015 at 7:22 PM
We love you!
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Amber and EverettJanuary 7, 2015 at 7:41 PM
Praying for you Diane! You can beat this!
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Carrie GriffithJanuary 7, 2015 at 7:56 PM
Diane. I am praying for you. Hang in there beautiful lady! Love you.
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Deanne KapetanovJanuary 7, 2015 at 8:34 PM
Diane, we are glad to hear that you are in a new room. We love you!

Deanne Kapetan
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Penny :)January 7, 2015 at 9:27 PM
So glad your feeling better today! 😃
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UnknownJanuary 7, 2015 at 9:30 PM
It's so great to hear good news!!!
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CatherineJanuary 7, 2015 at 9:40 PM
So glad to hear some good news!
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DebbiJanuary 8, 2015 at 10:39 AM
You're in my prayers every day. Sending hugs for continued good news.
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AnonymousJanuary 8, 2015 at 4:51 PM
It was so good to see you both today. Thank you. Hang in there. You can do it. I know you can.
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UnknownJanuary 9, 2015 at 9:53 AM
Diane you are amazing! We love you and you are in our prayers.
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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.