Saturday, September 5, 2009

The Star Patient

So, Brandon has had his second bone marrow transplant and everything went as expected. He started out doing all the treatments as an out patient, and has managed to keep away from all outside germs. Quite a miracle considering Katie got a cold right in the middle of everything! But, the Lord continues to help and protect Doan, and Katie is now safely over the cold and back to perfect health. Brandon on the other hand, being the star patient that he is, has had to be admitted to the hospital because his body took to the transplant SO well. You're all thinking, "That doesn't make sense! If he took to the transplant so well, what is he doing back in the hospital?" Well, it's something called engraftment syndrome. Sympotoms are very similar to pneumonia, fever, inability to breath normally, wheazing, etc. The doctors initially thought it was pneumonia, but instead, it's this engraftment syndrome. A very basic explination of this condition is that his body went to work so hard to engraft the new cells and to kill the bad ones, that it went into overdrive, and like a car, has over heated and caused some problems. His main discomfort right now, and the main reason he is in the hospital, is the fact that he is unable to get enough oxygen because his lungs are congested. So, they're keeping him there until his body is able to more normally regulate itself.

While engraftment syndrome isn't very comfortable for Doan, and if not monitered, can potentially be very dangerous, the up side is that it shows that the transplant and chemo treatments have gone well and are doing exactly what the doctors had hoped in terms of fighting the disease and replacing the bad cells with the good. Another positive is that Doan didn't get any mouth sores from the chemo (thanks to Ice Nazi Bobbi!), and he continues to look better and better in terms of his weight and coloring.

Your thoughts and prayers continue to be felt and appreciated. We are all so grateful for the continued progress Brandon has made and know it has been a blessing from the Lord. It has been a crazy few months, and will continue to be a bit of a climb as he rebuilds his immune system, but we're hopeful, optimistic, and continuing to count our blessings. Thank you for your continued support.

1 comment:

Lacey said...

brandon you are amazing, of course your body would go into some crazy super fight mode and make you "sick," that is crazy, but good at the same time. we are praying for you!