Day +17: liver functions looking better

We had a nice surprise when we woke up this morning. Not only did Mina Brigitta look and feel much better, but her liver function tests were much lower. They're still abnormally high, but this was the first drop in over a week. Also, her white counts are way up again. Her WBC is 7.0 billion per liter, well into the normal range, and her neutrophils were 4.24 billion. Today they stopped an antibiotic and the antifungal drug, and tomorrow they'll stop giving her the white cell stimulating factor. Her urine output was also higher than her fluid intake for the first time in a while, and she was noticeably less puffy today. And she was chowing down on spaghetti and drinking milk when I arrived back at the hospital today.

She even got to go outside the room for the first time in three weeks! She was very excited, and even pushed her babies around in the stroller for a while. Of course, it's a bit complicated these days. She has no fewer than seven IV tubes leading into her catheter, and they had to put a mask on her and clear the hallway of people. But she wasn't going to let that dampen her spirits.

Today they took blood for an engraftment study, where they determine whether the donor's cells are growing, her own cells are growing back, or both. We should know the results in a few days. Some time soon they'll also do a bone marrow aspiration to make sure she's still in remission and a send a sample for a minimal residual disease test. For right now though, everything is looking up. Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers.