6/28/06

Hi everyone.....some of you are aware of this weekend's events, and some aren't. We had a pretty scary weekend. As my last e-mail stated, Jen had been re-admitted on Thursday due to her white blood cell count. That evening they hit her with another dose of chemo to bring those numbers down. Friday when I spoke to her on the phone, she said she was in a lot of pain, and couldn't talk for long. Plans were for my mom and I to go to Baltimore on Saturday anyway. As we drove up, I called Jen, who stated that she wanted to wait until I arrived to discuss what the doctors were saying. I walked into her room to find her with an oxygen mask on. The doctors arrived a short time later. Jen had had trouble breathing that morning, and as a result, had panicked, making the problem worse. She was placed on a 100% oxygen blend. In addition, the break down of her cells were releasing toxins into her blood, and her kidneys were beginning to shut down. Because she was unable to rid her body of fluid, she developed immense pressure on her lungs as the fluid escaped her blood vessels and was absorbed into her tissues. The doctors' message left me shaking....they were not real optimistic they could fix all these problems. In the confusion of Jen's episode that morning, she had told the doctors she didn't want a breathing tube inserted. The doctors took this to mean that Jen wanted no "heroic measures" taken if she were to stop breathing. This is NOT what Jen meant....she knew that I had not felt very good after I had a breathing tube for my emergency appendectomy. There were also issues with her dad's passing. I immediately got on the phone to Jen's mom and sister, telling them they needed to get to Baltimore ASAP. The rest of that afternoon was spent trying to explain that Jen did want measures taken in the event she stopped breathing, and discussing what would be done to address the problems she was facing. They gave her a huge dose of Lasix to try and "kick start" her kidneys (we had agreed to dialysis if necessary), and kept her on oxygen and pain meds. So we sat and waited....the Lasix started working, as Jen was able to produce some urine....Jen's family arrived at 1 AM, and mom and I headed home to Arlington to pick up a few more items for the next day.

Sunday morning, I received a phone call from an oncology doctor, confirming that it was Jen and mine's intention to place a breathing tube if necessary. The next phone call was from Jen's mom, saying that the doctors were suggesting Jen probably only had a matter of days. I rushed up to Baltimore as fast as I could (in case you haven't been watching the news, we have been getting hammered by rain...9 inches in 48 hours....made driving a nightmare). Jen's heart and lungs couldn't keep up with her rapid breathing. I shed quite a few tears as I called my family to tell them the news. It was a rather surreal setting as I had to discuss what to do if (seemed more like when in those hours) Jen died. Overnight she had been placed on an assisted breathing machine (BiPAP). She wasn't awake much that morning as we all hoped and prayed. By that evening, her kidneys had continued to produce urine, and she started to flush the extra fluid out of her system. In turn, her heart rate began to SLOWLY come down. I didn't sleep much that night in the chair next to her bed. Monday morning the breathing rate trend continued (she had averaged 136-39 beats per minute initially, by this time she was down in the low 120s). The doctors started singing a different tune, saying they were encouraged by the progress overnight. She was able to talk by that afternoon when she was off the BiPAP machine, and even ate a half a piece of pizza that night! Tuesday brought more improvement...her kidneys were returning to normal, and her lungs didn't seem nearly as painful. Her heart rate slowed by the end of the night to the low 100s. She said I should go home (I had had about 8 hours of sleep in 72 hours). The reports from this morning are good. While we seem to have dodged a bullet so far, the leukemia is still a problem. The doctors have admitted to us that they are beginning to run out of options....GVHD is pretty much our only hope for remission. We are handling this one day at a time, and we have definitely not given up hope that we will beat this thing once and for all. Please continue to pray for Jen....we need as much hope as we can get right now. I will try to send updates, but I'm sure you can understand that I am busy taking care of Jen. Hope all of you are doing well......we appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Jeremy