Hang Loose, Hang Tight

Rosina is still in the ICU, and still on the ventilator. The results so far (that I know of) show that there was nothing in her lungs but the blood that had seeped in there, which means no infections - bacterial or fungal - which is good. It probably also means that she has Diffuse Aveolar Hemorrhage. It's a bleeding that occurs in the little sacks that take oxygen in to the blood. They don't know exactly what causes it, but it's certain that heavy duty chemo and radiation followed by an allogeneic bone marrow transplant make it happen. It occurs in about 5% of transplant patients and is one thing on a long list of possible complications that can follow a BMT. The treatment for it is steroids, and while it is a dangerous condition, it can be stopped and made to go away. Go away, says I. She is getting chest x-rays and they can see cloudy white indications that it is still there. As it clears up and she is getting enough oxygen by herself, they can start to remove the tube from her throat. This process takes about a day as you have to make sure the patient is gradually awoken and can breath by themselves before you remove the tube. I'm guessing it's not really comfortable, but it's also not uncommon.

She is sleeping peacefully. She was starting to get some redness like a rash on her arm which worried her a lot because she had a bad rash during her first round of chemo in July, but that redness seems to have faded away. That's good. She'll be happy about that. I was over there today and put on some music for her. It was one of her Brazilian music CDs from a few years ago, "Rosina's Sweet Brasil". Definitely comforting sounds for her. Play it if you got it.
My parents arrived here today to help out, it's great to see them. It'll be nice for Rosina when she wakes up. I imagine it's been hard for them to be so far away from us during all this. There are so many of us who drifted here to Los Angeles without much immediate family close by. In our case, it has been an incredible outpouring of friends and community and we are so grateful for all of it. By the way, I'm asked all the time about how I'm doing, and I'm doing fine! Busy, yes, but fine. Please direct your positive thoughts toward Rosina, she's the sweet little train going up the hill. All the comments and emails are great; thanks. Will keep you posted.

xo
ph