Sunday

Ava experienced a good deal of neck pain in the morning, so they gave her some morphine which brought her relief (and cheer!), allowing her to be more lucid & talkative. She was otherwise sleepy much of the rest of the day. Her pain returned in the evening, so Ava was given some more morphine for pain relief. Ava vomited twice today, and Esther noted that there was no nausea associated with either of those episodes, (and unrelated to morphine) so the neck pain continues to be a concern. The doctors do not believe the pain to be caused by a tumor, but are nevertheless confused by it. Therefore, Ava will get an X-ray of her neck in the morning. Please pray for continued guidance in Ava's care, revelation and insight regarding her neck pain, and of course complete resolution of all ailments/disease!

Ava's WBC was down to 880 today, and her blasts were at 34% (down from 37% yesterday), so it's good that the numbers continue to go down, even though they are not as low as desired.

As posted earlier, Ava's platelets went down to 7, so they gave her a platelet transfusion tonight. Normally, they would wait until the morning when they are better staffed in the event something happens, but because her numbers are so low, they felt the need to give it to her tonight to avoid any bleeding episodes overnight. They pre-medicated Ava and did something to the platelets (?) to hopefully reduce chances of a reaction. The actual transfusion was uneventful thankfully, but Ava developed hives a short while after her transfusion, so she got an extra dose of Benadryl. An hour and a half later, everything seems to be okay with the hives gone... just a little stomach ache and Ava's settling down to sleep. Thank you for your prayers.

Please pray for Esther as she has been battling a cold. Her cough has worsened with some chest pain now. Please pray for Esther's health and energy during this time, and for Ava's protection that she wouldn't catch anything else.

As for overall treatment, the doctors are leaning more towards a bone marrow transplant (BMT), but they are still aiming to get Ava into remission first. If they are unable, they will attempt other methods to buy more time until a BMT.

Which brings me to a previous post about the two bone marrow drives that will take place next month! Please spread the word, increase awareness, and encourage people to join the registry, especially Asians!

Thank you for your faithful prayers.