Day +183: Six-month anniversary

Six months to the day from Mina Brigitta's transplant. It's been a long, long road, but it's still hard to believe it's been six months. I suppose this ought to be a time of reflection, but I don't really feel that way. I think I'm still too busy living in the here and now. Things have been going very well, better than we could have hoped, and for that I can only be thankful. But Mina Brigitta still has such a long road ahead of her. Six months. That's a nice landmark. Mina Brigitta is recovering very well from the transplant and the related complications. I may start to relax a bit when it's been four years and six months. That's probably about when we'll start to worry less about her leukemia, and more about the possible late effects from all of her treatment.

We're still waiting for the results of the tests they started last week. The big one is the engraftment study, where they determine how much of her blood carries donor DNA vs. her own DNA. They do them every two months at first, so this will be her third. The first two both showed 100% donor cells. If this one shows less than 100%, that could mean impending relapse. We don't want her own cells to grow back, because chances are some of them would be cancerous. The other tests we're waiting on are T-cell and B-cell lymphocyte function. This will tell us how well her immune system is performing. If those tests come back with good numbers, they may start to lift some of her restrictions. They're not really expecting that because she's still on strong immuno-suppressive drugs because of her history with graft vs. host disease. But her lymphocyte numbers have jumped the last few weeks, and they think maybe that's a good sign. Hopefully we'll get some results back early next week.

Mina Brigitta is very excited about Halloween. There are lots of decorations around, which is really fun for her. Her favorites are the spider webs. There is a street near ours that hosts a huge block party every Halloween. We went two years ago when we lived in the apartment, and it was really quite something. Mina Brigitta had a great time last year as well. She walked around for a month afterwards saying "Tick-TEE! Tick-TEE!" We still haven't quite figured out how we're going to dress her up. Isaac is wearing a bumblebee costume, so we're thinking of trying to dress Mina as a flower. She likes the idea too, but Keri and I aren't exactly the most creative types.

My parents are coming Monday too, so that should be a lot of fun. They haven't seen Mina Brigitta since she was in the hospital. She's excited that they're coming, but she keeps asking whether they're coming here or to the pole house.