Wed, May 13

Today as we arrived at the hospital, Christi was sitting up in bed as lively and pretty as she could be. She had been so sick each morning, but she believes that it was caused by anti-fungal medicine that she was taking orally. They had to give her so much medicine for nausea and vomiting that it was keeping her pretty well knocked out. They are now putting it in her IV. It takes longer, but who cares?

We met a new doctor who came from Seattle where the transplants were first developed, and he started the transplant unit at Baylor. He is a big man with a very good sense of humor and a great bedside manner. His name is Dr. Fay and he is a partner of Dr. Vance. All the doctors that she had in ICU will be attending her for this transplant: Dr. Ausloos, pulmonary; Dr. Spak, infectious disease; Dr. Holmes, oncologist. Each has come by to visit her since she moved over to Collins and are special to us since they brought Christi through a terrifically difficult time.

Dr. Spak told Rick, Christi's husband, that he had observed that the family has been supportive in taking turns to care for Christi which will play a big role in her healing.

They took blood samples for the Baylor lab, then starting at 10:03, they took blood to send by courier to a lab in Seattle, Washington. They took two successive vials at 11:03 and 12:03 (a courier was waiting at the door of Christi's room to take the vial to another courier) which were also sent by courier to the Seattle Lab. They said there were only two labs in the U.S. that they would send this to. They will have the results tomorrow, and then they will know whether to add or subtract the dosage of chemo. Both chemos are to completely kill her bone marrow...I asked today if all her bone marrow is killed and something happens and the stem cells do not arrive from the donor in Europe, then what is the plan? Dr. Fay said that was a very good question, but he didn't tell me the back up plan. I guess that will be in tomorrow's episode. He did say that had never happened before, but I hope they have a back up in Christi's case.

Christi took a long walk to the family room and sat there for a while and watched tv, then she made the long trek back to her room. She was tired and wanted to sleep, so we returned home tonight instead of staying in Dallas. That was the first time in 9 weeks that she said she felt good and stayed awake all day...

Rick and Rebekah, Marianna's daughter, will be with her tomorrow. Layton and I will drive in about noon.

Love to each of you,
Melba