Day 9 + 10

(Day 9) & (Day 10)

Dianna's Labs- Friday, 10/10/08:
white blood count: 2.0, red blood count: 3.42, HGB: 9.8, platelets: 5, Neut #: 1.460

Friday (Day 9)-

The doctors are very pleased with Dianna's blood counts. :-)
You can see that she is beginning to make her own white blood cells!!!
(This is the start of building back her immune system.)
It is great to hear good news!
Today, he said that Dianna would not need to have her sugar checked or insulin shots.
YEA!
No more pokes in the fingers and back of her arm. :-)

Dianna is still having problems with kidneys and high blood pressure, but it is due to the steriods that she is taking.
She is still on medications to help with her kidneys and high blood pressure.

Saturday (Day 10)-

Today is about the same as Friday...
Dianna is still having the problems with her kidneys and high blood pressure, but the doctors are still pleased with how she is doing.

I am just praying that her body continues to heal itself and Nicolaus' stem cells continue to grow.

Day 8

Today, began about the same...

Dianna is still on medication to help control her high blood pressure & high sugar.
Also, the doctors believe that the sores in her mouth are also in her stomach.
(The reason she has been complaining of stomach pains for the past week.)
The pain medication seems to help with this most of the time.

TODAY-
Dianna wanted to shave off the rest of her hair.
It has been coming out and was beginning to really bother her.

SO...
The Guys deceided to join Dianna in shaving their heads, as a show of support!
It was great!!!
Today was the first day Dianna has laughed in two weeks! :-)
Everyone had a GREAT TIME!
They had a pool to determine who had the best looking head and Dianna was the judge.
She picked Ryan as the winner. :-)

Thanks to the guys for making Dianna laugh!!!!!!

(click to see larger)


**Bret Foster (Daddy Bret), Doug Foster (Uncle Doug), Ryan Foster (Big Brother "step-brother") & Pat Kempf (CEO of Moroch & Friend of Bret)**

Day +6

Dianna labs- 10/05/08:
white blood count: 0.2, red blood count: 2.47, HGB: 8.0, platelets: 8, Neut #: 0.100

The past few days have been about the same...
Dianna is still having problems with her kidneys, high blood pressure and high sugar.
The medications she is on seems to be helping.

Sunday- She received a platelet transfusion.

Monday- She received a blood transusion.
Also, she has started to loss her hair. :-(

Tuesday- She began to get a sore in her mouth from the chemo.

Day +2

The past two nights Dianna has had a problem with her blood pressure and sugar levels being very high.
She has had to begin medication for high blood pressure and insulin.
Also, her kidneys are having problems keeping up with all the medications.
She is not happy with all the pokes testing her sugar levels and giving insulin.
Today her blood pressure went so high that she said she was seeing double. :-(
Her doctor called in a Kidney Specialist- hoping he can help with her kidneys and the high blood pressure.
He ordered an Ultra Sound for her... we are still waiting on the results.

Day 0 - Transplant Day!!!

(click photo to see it larger)

This morning Dianna was given more medication to help prevent problems with the transplant.
She had a reaction to one of the medications it caused a fever and her blood pressure went up.
She was given more medication for the fever and blood pressure medication.

Nicolaus had to be at the surgery area at 6:00am.
He was taken back for the stem cell harvest around 7:30am.
The doctors said everything went very well with the procedure. :-)
We finally got to see Nicolaus aroung 10:30am.
He was in pain, so he received medication for the pain.

Nicolaus finally felt well enough to visit Dianna around 5:30pm.
They brought him up in a wheelchair.

Poor Nicolaus got sick leaving the hospital. :-(

*The hospital sent Dianna a Birthday Cake tonight.*

**Now Dianna will get to have TWO Birthdays.**

Day -2

This morning at 4:00am, Dianna started "Cyclosporine".
It is used to decrease the immune system's response to a transplant.
Today, NO Cytoxan. Yea!
Dianna received Fludarbine & ATG.
She is still having bad haedaches. :-(
Tonight around 9:30pm Dianna was sick at her stomach again. :-(

Tuesday, Day -1
For Dianna- Rest day & IVIG
For Nicolaus- Pre-OP appointment

Day -5

Dianna had a much better day today!
She was feeling more like herself. (She was picking on Mom this afternoon.)
Dr. Lenarsky was pleased with how well she did yesterday with the chemo.
She did just have a very bad headache; but the nurse quickly gave her some pain medication and she is now asleep.
I am praying that she feels better tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone that signed Dianna's guestbook, she enjoys reading the messages.

Day -6

Today, Thursday is Day -6
Dianna begins Fludarabine & Cytoxan

Yesterday, after the Central Line placement Dianna was not able to keep any food or drink down.
Everything that she tried came back up.
The extra pain medication did not agree with her stomach.

This morning was the same...
I was hoping that she would be feeling better and able to eat, but no such luck.

She has slept most of the morning and is still sleeping now. (just wakes to go to bathroom then right back to bed)

September 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 11:52 AM CDT

We are in the hospital!
Dianna had a platelet transfusion yesterday- Tuesday.
This morning, she had her surgery to insert her Central Line.
This will allow the doctors/nurses to draw blood and give her IV's or medication with out having to poke her each time.
It took much longer to complete the surgery than the surgeon first thought. He told us he should be out in 45 minutes to an hour, but it was two hours before Dr. Hermon came out to talk with us.
(I was getting worried!)
He said Dianna's vein on the side he wanted to use was the size of a ball point pen tip.
So now she has two extra holes with stiches. :-(
At this time she is still sleeping, because they gave her extra medication for the pain.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:11 AM CDT

Just a short update...

Dianna had a check up on Monday, Sept. 15th.
She was able to tour the Transplant Floor.
During the tour she got to meet the nurses that will be taking caring of her starting next Tuesday.

I can not believe that it is less than a week till we check in to the hospital (Medical City Dallas).

Please keep us in your prayers.
Thanks!

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Monday, September 8, 2008 4:10 PM CDT

Dianna and Nicolaus had appointments on Thursday, September 4th.

Dianna's labs are- white blood count: 5.1, red blood count: 2.70, HGB: 9.70, platelets: 37, NE#: .90, NE: 17.3

Dr. Goldman gave me a copy of th HLA Results for Dianna & Nicolaus- (Nicolaus is a 11 out of 12 match for Dianna.) :-)

Dianna:
HLA-A: 1,2
HLA-B: 8,15
HLA-Cw: 3,7
HLA-DRB1: 0301/28,0401
HLA-DRB3: 0101/11
HLA-DRB4: 0103
HLA-DRB5:
HLA-DQB1: 0201,030201

Nicolaus:
HLA-A: 02,
HLA-B: 08,15
HLA-Cw: 03,07
HLA-DRB1: 0301/28,0401
HLA-DRB3: 0101/11
HLA-DRB4: 0103
HLA-DRB5:
HLA-DQB1: 0201,030201

We are still on target to go into the hospital on September 23rd and have the Central Line placement on the 24th.