Monday, March 12, 2007  10:30 p.m.

Carissa's white blood cell count was slightly lower today.  A combination of other blood work results and symptoms (exhaustion & pain) convinced Dr. Kareem that Carissa has to go back up on Cortef.  He prescribed 25 mg three times a day (up from 10 mg twice a day) and said that she could come down gradually again later. 

Carissa will feel better.  She knows that it will prevent her from sleeping well for a while and she will probably get chipmunk cheeks again, which are minor problems compared to the damage to her bones.  But they are choices that are necessary for transplant patients.

Is a transplant worth it?  Carissa wouldn't be alive today without it and her quality of life is incredibly better. 

Today was a day of rejoicing with our transplant friends, nurses, and doctors.  Tomorrow, March 13th, is the one year anniversary of Carissa's transplant.  We celebrated by sharing homemade sugar cookies that Carissa cut out, baked, and decorated with a green ribbon.  Yes, Carissa...  All 90 of them! 

The miracle of Carissa's new life continues to amaze us.  We praise the Lord for His blessing, thank the transplant team for their sacrificial lifestyle for the benefit of patients, and pray for the family of the donor. 

We are earnestly praying for the family of the donor as the memory of their loss floods their memory.  We thank them for their courageous gift in the midst of sorrow.

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Friday, March 9, 2007  8:30 p.m.

Wednesday was a snowy day and the turnpike was closed from Carlisle to Breezewood for several hours, so we waited until yesterday to come to Pittsburgh.  It was a beautiful day to travel!

Carissa had a biopsy and blood work taken this morning in 7W.  Everything is fine except she isn't supposed to take Cytovene (Ganciclovir) over the weekend because her level of white blood cell count was too low.  She was advised to stay away from crowds and to wash her hands often.

Cytovene is given routinely to transplant patients (because they are immunosuppressed) to control replication of the CMV virus.  It is a virus that is watched carefully in the transplant world.

Interestingly enough, last week I ran across a note that Wayne wrote about twelve years ago when we first took Carissa to see Dr. McCallum at the University of Virginia.  Dr. McCallum mentioned that a normal CMV level is less than 15, but Carissa's level was over 250.  He didn't know whether CMV was the cause of Carissa's gastroparesis.  We still don't know that there was a connection, but the significance of CMV at this point in her life makes us wonder.