Plan C

Good Day Family and Friends,

First, I apologize for not updating you all sooner! It has been a full throttle stream of happenings here on 7 East, so I am taking a breath to update you now...

I left off with some tests pending, and here are the results:

CT Scan after 6 weeks of Ampho B treatment has her lungs looking improved! This is really great news, as the organism that she had has never been identified - all of the tests that were done this have come back with no growth or identifiable fungus. So, we are thankful that the Radiologists have a clue and were able to hit the nail on the head with their findings. Based on her current condition of very low WBC counts, she is going to stay on the Ampho B treatments every M-W-F. We are okay with this, as she has responded well, her body is tolerating it and her electrolytes are holding steady. We want to give a shout out to the best Resident ever - Dr. Nic Parnell. He has finished his term here and may go into Heme-Onc as he moves through his career. His work was crucial in getting Molly's electrolytes stable.

                                                                       Molly & Dr. Nic

Port Site Drama - Molly got her port removed in late December, and she continues to experience issues with the site. She now has a cellulitis infection in the site (thankfully it is not MRSA!). She had her first Sunday surgery this weekend so that they could go in and drain it. They removed some fluid and put in a gauze drain for 24 hours. Since the drain has been removed, the site has continued to give her issues. As of this morning, and yet another antibiotic, it seems to be getting better. 

Bone Marrow Biopsy last week - Plan B, or Gemtuzumab did not work at all. Molly's marrow blast count is now 80%! with peripheral blasts at 27% - this is obviously heading in the WRONG direction and is extremely concerning to us all. Heartbreaking, really :(

After a lot of discussion over the weekend and yesterday, the Doctors concur that the next best step is to give her a 4 drug regiment over the next 10 days - which is both a DNA modifier and strong chemotherapy (FLAG). The ultimate goal is to get her blasts under 5% so that she can go directly to transplant in February. There are a lot of goals she has to meet in order for this to happen, but we continue to be hopeful.

The main issue with additional chemo is that her bone marrow cellularity is very low - 20% - the docs are hoping that her cellularity does not go down (lower than 5%) with the new treatment, but if it does and she is unable to produce her own cells after the therapy then they will give her baby cord to her as a rescue. This is not ideal at all, but thankfully we banked it when she was born! (Note, we banked Xander's as well and it saved his life when his first transplant failed!) Dr. Yanik is getting the cord delivered to UofM so that it is here if he needs to use it.

So all this being said, Molly needs your prayers right now. Please pray for Plan C to work and for her blasts to be obliterated.

Molly on a zoom call with her Forum class at CHS

A huge thank you to everyone that has stepped up to support us during this extremely stressful and unpredictable time. Your calls, texts, meals, money, gift cards, love and prayers are so appreciated and we would not be able to get through this without you. 💕

Peace and Love,

Emilie