Day -4

Since they count down until the day of the transplant we are now on day -4. Our day started at 1:45 am with a new drug being hung called Busulfan. Becky will get this drug every 6 hours for 8 times. It's the one that she got the Dilantin for yesterday to prevent the seizures. It took 2 hours to run and she (we) slept until about 3:30 and then she was wide awake and ready to talk. I called her "chatty cathy" but we enjoyed talking and never did go back to sleep. I finally got up and had a shower about 5:45. We had a good breakfast with a fantastic omelet and things were going great. BJ, Larania, Jessica and Amy were here by 11:00 and we had our own church service with a great sermon from Daddy on the computer. They started another new drug about noon and Becky has been sick most of the time since then. There were several side effects mentioned and she's had most of them with violent shaking chills (controlled with Demerol), back pain, fever,vomiting (controlled with compazine) and her oxygen saturation dropping below 91, for which she is now on oxygen at 2 liters. She is sleeping now. They have drawn blood cultures, urinalysis, and a chest x-ray because that's protocol but they're pretty sure it's just reactions to the drug. She has about another 1 1/2 hours left on this drug and then she'll only have the 8pm left for the evening.

Even through it all she remains concerned about others. She invited a nurse to church service and she came for a little while until her beeper went off. She continues to smile and be very gracious for all the help she is receiving and is an encouragement to all who enter her room. She also talked with the wife of a man on the floor who had his own stem cell transplanted on Wed. and was such a blessing to that lady. God can use us in any circumstance if we're only willing to let Him.

We know that God is still in control and we will continue to depend on Him for the strength we need to handle what comes our way.

Love,
Barb and Becky

Continue to pray for her strength