Brooke's Transplant Update

Hi everyone. This morning is Day +5 from Transplant. Brooke has been having a rough couple of days since I wrote last. I’m going to try to get this done while she is still sleeping ( 9:45 am) and before the doctors come in to examine her.

Monday 8/24:

Started the morning with meds and mouthcare (never a pleasant experience but must be done 3x’s a day). Ryan, her OT, came in shortly afterwards. Brooke has enjoyed working with Ryan the past couple of weeks but initially Mon morning she needed a lot of encouragement to participate due to the pain and weakness in her legs (she has not wanted to get out of bed). But Ryan was able to get her motivated and out of bed and she wound up having a good session with him. Throughout the day her heart rate has been increased (around the 130’s) so they are keeping an eye on it. She continues to have, as a result of the Mucositis, vomiting, diarrhea and pain in her mouth and stomach. We Skyped (video call on the computer) with Daddy tonight which really made Brooke happy! Thanks Stacy for setting that up for us before we left!

Tues 8/25:

Miss Sarah (child life specialist & Brooke’s best buddy here) is back from being at the Ronald McDonald Camp for the past week (WooHoo)! Boy was Brooke happy to see her! She had OT with Ryan again in the morning and PT with Kat in the afternoon. She did pretty well and seemed to enjoy PT but needed a lot of rest breaks between exercises. She is getting morphine pretty much every 4 hours, while she is awake, to help with pain in her legs and from the Mucositis. Her platelet count was only 9,000 so she had a platelet transfusion first thing in the morning. Her heart rate Tues was running around the 150’s.

The Team (Attending, Fellow & NP) just came in. In spite of how Brooke seems to be doing to me, they continue to be very pleased with how well she is doing. All of the issues that she is having are to be expected and she is actually doing much better than most kids at this point of transplant. She actually has a WBC (white blood cell count) today – only 0.1 but it’s a start. Her Hemoglobin count this morning is 8.5 so they said she will probably have a blood transfusion tonight or tomorrow. Her platelet count is 25,000 so she will probably get a platelet transfusion Thursday morning. For all you blood and platelet donors out there thank you so much from the bottom of my heart! Brooke has needed probably well over 20 transfusions since she was diagnosed. You really are saving lives and truly heroes! They are going to put her on a PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesic) or as I call it a morphine pain pump (low dose continuous morphine with the ability to give her an instant extra hit of it when needed) today and they think this will be a big help.

Well, it’s now 10:35am and Brooke is starting to wake up (my free time is officially over). Now go hug your kids and tell them how much you love them and praise God for all your blessings!

God Bless,

Amy

"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth....The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them" (Psalm 34:1,7).