Thank you Lord

Thank you Lord

Thank you all so much for texting and calling to check on Kimbell today.  I am so sorry I have failed to return any of them 🙁  Today has been one of the most, if not the most, emotional days of my life.  We barely slept last night we were so excited.  All I could think of was is the donor ok? did they get enough marrow? is the courier ok? what’s the weather like, will it hinder the marrow getting here? and on and on and on.  Well it made it safe and sound.  We frantically decorated her room because it got here so early.  I ran to the bathroom and the nurse said “it’s here”.  I walked over and literally lost it, I couldn’t compose myself for anything.  I just stared at the bag and thought this is my daughter’s hope, future, chance to live.  This one bag holds the key to her living and it’s all because of the grace of God.  Whoever she is, she clearly felt compelled to do for others.  She selflessly showed up to her appointments, went through numerous calls and tests and then she showed up for her surgery.  She felt pain because she wanted to give my baby a chance to live.  How can you ever thank someone for giving part of them to someone else?  Kimbell will have her skin, her hair, her blood the core of her and we don’t even know who “her” is.  Despite whatever the future may hold, this unknown “her” will always be a hero to us.  Whoever you are and wherever you are, you are an amazing inspirational woman.  We hope you recover quickly, you will always be in our prayers and we love you from the bottom of our hearts.

Kimbell got lots and lots of marrow to the point it kept clotting up and it took almost 3 hours to go in.  It’s supposed to take no more than 2 hours to not affect the quality of the marrow so we shall see.   K’s  blood pressure was really high so she wasn’t able to do all the stuff she wanted to do but she got presents, was able to celebrate and got to spend the day with Sarah (all the way from Fort Worth!), her family, and grandma and e Pa.  Not 20 seconds after the last drop went in did she get sick.  She has been puking for hours now.  We’ve maxed out all the drugs.  She finally started getting some rest but still wakes up to puke and passes back out again.  Her blood pressure after lots of IV drugs has come down – wohooo.  She is now hooked up to 8 IV pumps 🙁 and the worst is yet to come.  It is so hard to believe that you get sicker after the gift of life…..  I am truly having trouble wrapping my head around that one!  The other good news is Kimbell is on a children’s oncology group trial for anti fungals.  As of yesterday it was questionable if she would have to pull out of the trial because of her liver enzymes but they came down to an acceptable level so she was able to stay in for now!  The new anti fungal starts today.  Last but certainly not least, Father Joe came and blessed the marrow and Kimbell today.  The attending and fellow came in as he was doing the blessing and it was time to say the Lord’s prayer.  It’s not every day you see your doctors praying.  It was such a beautiful experience for everyone to be saying the Lord’s prayer together.

Many people have been asking if the blood infection would affect her transplant, obviously it didn’t but I thought I would tell you why.  When you get a bone marrow transplant the doctors have to use high dose chemo.  The chemo literally wipes away your bone marrow so you have nothing to fight the infection with.  It doesn’t seem like a lot of chemo especially when you hear of people getting chemo for years to fight off cancer but from what I understand that chemo is given and then you get a break for counts to come back and then you get some more and keep repeating.  This chemo is super strong to take it all away and your marrow doesn’t come back so you have to replace it.

On another note we are slowly meeting the other families on the unit so if you don’t mind adding a few kids to your prayer list 🙂 Megan is 12 and has ALL she had her BMT on Monday, Maddie also 12 has ALL and is +78 days but has been getting infection after infection, and last but not least is Sam.  He just turned 12 on Thursday and has ALL too.  Sam has been through so much and is having his second heart surgery tomorrow.  He has to get better before he can do his BMT.

Kimbell has her new marrow now the hard part begins.  Thank you all so much for being with us, for the cards, love, texts, calls (even if I never have time to call back!), and most of all prayers.

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John & Paige