We’re now on Day +10 after Aurora’s bone marrow transplant and she’s surprised us all so far. Coming in to transplant and conditioning I thought she’d start to feel the effects immediately and that we’d have a rough time straight off the bat, but almost 3 weeks later, Aurora’s still managing to engage in conversation, eat and drink a little, and tolerate feeds which is a massive step for her.
We’ve had a couple of high temperatures, although these haven’t lasted long, but now we’re dealing with haemorrhagic cystitis which is painful for Rory. It’s an inflammation of the bladder causing it to bleed, although it isn’t completely unexpected. It could be a combination of the cyclophosphamide chemotherapy and the total body irradiation or BK Virus which often lies dormant in the body and cones to life when patients are immunosuppressed. The treatment includes a lot of fluids which means she’s using the toilet more, and each time she does she’s in pain. She’s now on regular pain medication to help, and so far it’s working!
In comparison to the first couple of cycles of chemo, this is relatively settled and although the pain is there, it hasn’t stopped her from doing the day to day activities that she does here. Lots of screen time, arts and crafts, school with the teachers and plenty of joke cracking. It’s been refreshingly better than I imagined it would be when we first got here, but there’s still a long way to go.
Today however, is a day to celebrate! Because we’ve seen the first glimmer of a white blood cell!!
It’s a sign that engraftment has begun and that her donor cells are starting to multiply and do their job!
Engraftment is the process in which donor cells, that have already been infused through her Hickman line, have found their way to her bone marrow and begun to make new blood cells. It’s an indicator that her donor cells are working and starting to rebuild her immune system! White cells are the first to engraft which include her neutrophils, then her red cells and then platelets!
Once her new cells have had a chance to graft properly, multiply and take root in her body, we’re likely to see a whole range of different side effects but so far she’s coped really well! Although we don’t know how bad they’ll be, I always plan for the worst, and anything else is a bonus.
She’s surprised us all so far, so I’m looking forward to that continuing throughout her recovery. Before she is allowed to leave the room her neutrophils have to be above 0.5 on 2 consecutive days and symptoms under control, so that’s our goal to look forward to! Today is the first day towards the goal and it’s been a day spent in a good mood and high spirits!
Growing Pains and Paper Planes 