With Steph's permission I wanted to copy over a recent post on her blog. If you felt your heart wrench reading Joe's post about his son Andrew passing, your heart will also be wrenched by a mother crying out for her son. As many of you know Connor's BMT did not take and so he is back at square one looking for another match. They have been patiently waiting for years now for a match and found one late last year that backed out and one this year that did not take. They are depending on the kindness of strangers to help save their son. Please embody the gospel by serving them and register at marrow.org. All it takes is a simple cheek swab to see if you can save a life. Also, if there is anyone out there that has connections with Global Korean Young Adult Mission (GYKM) and/or the Korean World Council for Christ (KWMC) - they are holding their annual Korean World Mission Conference at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College on July 23-27 and they're expecting 5,000 young Korean Christians. We're trying hard to get a bone marrow drive at the conference and so any help or contacts anyone can provide to get that ball moving would be greatly appreciated. Please leave a comment or shoot me an email at seeingjesusineverything@gmail.com if you can help. Thanks!
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We went for more labwork and his counts have dropped to very low levels
again. We stopped administering G-csf on Sunday and in 5 days time his
numbers have dropped dramatically. He needed another blood transfusion
today and will most likely need platelets on Tues. The doctors have
decided to continue G-csf again until our next appointment and then
based on those numbers will need to determine if we will need a bone
marrow biopsy to see what is truly going on in there. They all seem a
bit concerned that his body is not able to sustain production of his
immune system but at the same time keep encouraging us that his counts
are not at 0, close to it, and that there is some production- but who
knows if it is due to all the blood and platelets that he gets on a
weekly basis now? It is difficult to stay optimistic especially since
Connor is only the 2nd patient undergoing RIC at Children's whose bmt
failed so they just don't have a lot of data for us to review. Can you
believe he is only the 2nd child??? SO FRUSTRATING!!! Please don't get
me wrong, we accept what has happened, what choice do we have after all,
and we generally have very good days BUT I do have these moments where I
just look to the universe and say UGHHHHH!!!
What is really scary is the decision that we have to make about a second transplant. I ran into a mother of a 12 year old son who is suffering from acute GVHD on his skin. I have read about that being a possibility but until you talk to someone you don't really understand what GVHD of the skin means...she described it as the entire skin suffered from burns and her son is in excruciating pain and so much of his skin peels off his body that she has to clean the floor of his room at least 3 times a day. He underwent full myloblative bmt- the preconditioning treatment that Connor will have to endure if or when he has to do this again. How do we make this choice and when? We are still seeking guidance on all of this and trying to review all of our bmt research again but for now we still need to find another donor! Please encourage everyone to register- most of them will never be called to donate and a lucky few may have the opportunity to save a life!
Connor is still doing well, we are keeping occupied by re-decorating his room and making it everything Star Wars! And he finally got a big boy desk and takes so much pride in keeping it organized and lining things up. I actually got him to let go of a few of his toys from when he was 2 or 3 so I am thrilled! We are slowly getting into some sort of schedule but some days he is just really tired.
Thank you all for your prayers for our family and for Andrew's family. God has heard your prayers and our friend Nancy is out of intensive care, she still has a long road ahead of her but she is off of most of her machines and we are so grateful!
Have a great weekend!
What is really scary is the decision that we have to make about a second transplant. I ran into a mother of a 12 year old son who is suffering from acute GVHD on his skin. I have read about that being a possibility but until you talk to someone you don't really understand what GVHD of the skin means...she described it as the entire skin suffered from burns and her son is in excruciating pain and so much of his skin peels off his body that she has to clean the floor of his room at least 3 times a day. He underwent full myloblative bmt- the preconditioning treatment that Connor will have to endure if or when he has to do this again. How do we make this choice and when? We are still seeking guidance on all of this and trying to review all of our bmt research again but for now we still need to find another donor! Please encourage everyone to register- most of them will never be called to donate and a lucky few may have the opportunity to save a life!
Connor is still doing well, we are keeping occupied by re-decorating his room and making it everything Star Wars! And he finally got a big boy desk and takes so much pride in keeping it organized and lining things up. I actually got him to let go of a few of his toys from when he was 2 or 3 so I am thrilled! We are slowly getting into some sort of schedule but some days he is just really tired.
Thank you all for your prayers for our family and for Andrew's family. God has heard your prayers and our friend Nancy is out of intensive care, she still has a long road ahead of her but she is off of most of her machines and we are so grateful!
Have a great weekend!
Steph
Saving Connor from Saving Connor on Vimeo.
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