We have received preliminary results on Avarie's Transplant. They have so far tested 20 cells and all 20 cells came back XY Chromosomes, those are male cells. So Avarie's blood is male, that means that the transplant was a SUCCESS.
I have honestly been preparing myself and telling everyone that I don't think it worked. I have been preparing myself for it to be a failure so that I wasn't devastated when or if word came that it was her marrow in her. So far it looks like a complete success and we are exstatic.
I have realized that a lot of people don't understand exactly what have male blood means, or how the transplant works exactly, so just incase you are one of those I will explain it. We gave Avarie very strong chemo's that killed her bone marrow. Your bone marrow is located inside of your bones and it is what makes all of your blood cells. You have many, many types of blood cells, but the main ones are your red blood cells, which carry oxygen to your body, your white blood cells which are your immune fighters and your platelets which are your blood clotters. We killed the marrow which is the manufacture of those things. We then gave her stem cells from a new person. Stem cells are the building blocks of everything. When we put them into her and her marrow was completely gone, the new stem cells traveled to where her bone marrow was suppose to be and started growing there. Why or how they get there is a mystery to me, but somehow they know exactly where to go and what to do. It took them a while to regrow, but they did grow. The donor cells are now her new bone marrow. They are her new blood manufacturer in her body. So finding male blood in her means that she has a male manufacturer in her. She will always have this marrow, someone asked me that. She will always have male blood. There needs to be a CSI or Law in Order show made after something like that. It would be a really good twist for one of those shows.
We don't have the official results, but the chances that they took 20 cells and all came back male is a really good sign.
Avarie is starting to have some problems. She is losing weight and not tolerating food. She has been having diarrhea and a lot of tummy aches and then today has started throwing up. We took her in and they are scheduling her for a GI (gastro intestinal) test. They are going to take a scope down through her mouth and up through her bottom to look to see if she is having Graft vs. Host in her gut.
She seems to have gotten worse tonight. She got sick tonight again and has been asleep every since. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get her to keep anything down tonight. She has kept nothing down today, but they gave her a little hydration today at the Dr's office so I know she's ok for the moment, but I'm worried about how she'll do through the night tonight. If we can't get her to keep anything down tonight we'll be calling the Dr's in the morning and possibly take her in tomorrow to be admitted until we get this all figured out. The solution to having graft vs host, is to put her on steroids. I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me. No one is a nice person on steroids, but a 4 year old, its never a pretty situation.
I tried to upload a video her with this post of Avarie today. We had the nurse give her some ativan at the appointment because she had to have a dressing change on her PIC line in her arm today. It is always very traumatic for her, so we give her some ativan to help calm her down and ease her anxieties. I think she had a little too much though. She was halucinating for hours after. It is so funny. She was playing with this blue plastic throw up bag for hours. She kept seeing things in there and trying to get them out. We took the funniest little video, which honestly is kind of sad too, of her trying to save the gorilla in the throw up bag. Unfortunately, according to her he melted before she got him out. Its funny to watch her, but sad to see your child like that too. But we definitely had a good laugh today.