Days +88-89: another day at the clinic

Mina Brigitta received another dose of IVIG (http://www.itpkids.org/docs/ivig.html) today, which required another five-hour clinic visit. Isaac went to a babysitter, who has a young granddaughter and a dog, so he had a blast. Mina's doctor's appointment was a bit sobering. It's been so nice to see her having so much energy, we were probably secretly hoping they'd say how great she looked and send us on our way. But they're going to go ahead with the MRI tomorrow morning, because her right foot is still turned out a bit when she walks. Also, her heart rate has been high the last two visits, so they're going try to schedule an echocardiogram and a pulmonary function test as soon as possible. Apparently GVHD can cause fluid buildup in the chest cavity outside the lungs, which could reduce lung function and cause the heart to have to work harder. They can't say what's been causing her loose stools, but they said to keep her milk products to a minimum still and we need to collect some stool for a c. diff. test, in case the previous round of antibiotics didn't quite do the job. Kind of a lot of reminders of where she's at in the process, just when we were maybe beginning to let our guard down a bit.

Also, the nurse practitioner said it probably wasn't a good idea to go to Muir Woods because of aspergillis spores (http://www.aspergillus.man.ac.uk/indexhome.htm?languages/index.php~main) in the air. She wears a little paper mask whenever she's out, but obviously it's not 100% effective, and aspergillus is very serious. Dr. Horn was a bit less emphatic, saying there are no studies of that kind of situation, but there are studies showing that immunocompromised adults have contracted aspergillis from gardening. She basically left it up to us, so Keri and I will have to figure out what we're comfortable with.