Diane Jensen: Lots of fillerup, now at Bear Lake

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Lots of fillerup, now at Bear Lake

Yesterday, we went to the hospital early 8 a.m. They gave her a clinic visit, a visit with two doctors, 2 units of blood and four units of platelets that should last year they think until about Thursday. As soon as we got done at the hospital we left for Bear Lake. We stopped in Logan for lunch. We arrived in Bear Lake about 4:30, it was overcast, but beautiful to be there. We got up this morning and Jeremy's boat and the waverunner in the water. We were able to get Diane on the boat at the dock and went out for a boat ride. She really enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun until the wind started to come up and we got a bit of water in the boat from the spray that kind of chilled her a bit. She got pretty tired and had a little nap back at the house. We prayed for better weather and are in process of going back out. We are happy to be here with all the kids and grand kids, we do miss Stephanie and Caleb who are at home. Stephanie had to work and Caleb needs his mom, especially at night. Next time. ......

1 comment:

janericksonJuly 14, 2015 at 3:58 PM
Yea! Time with the family. I'm so glad you got away and have your family there. I'm sure its beautiful and a good change of scenery. Soak it up! See you when you get back.
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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.