Kenna's Aplastic Anemia Journey - 06.20.2004

June 20, 2004

Adrienne sent an update to most of you while I was gone to the mountains near Denver on retreat. It was a beautiful week. There was no cellular service there, so she sent me the good news by FAX. The counts were so positive that it caused tears of joy, which gave those standing nearby a cause for concern until they could understand.

Here’s her Monday message in case you missed it:

<<Kenna just had her weekly visit to the doctor and it is good news! Her ANC is 330 - the highest ever! And finally a retic of 0.2 - this is usually an indicator that her bone marrow is producing red cells (or beginning to). Here’s the site for an explanation of that term. http://www.chclibrary.org/micromed/00063640.html

Her white cells are in a low normal range of 5.5 (those are the infection fighters which can’t be transfused which she hasn't had up until now, so she has to have made them herself!!) - her red cells are still low at 7.5 (they transfuse at 7.0) and her platelets are at 5,000 - very low but doctor doesn't want to transfuse quite yet since she is still doing so well...we have an appt for Wednesday at noon for platelets and reds so we should be there well into the evening.

I am trying taking it easy myself - being diagnosed with a kidney infection over the weekend...please keep us in your prayers - they are working!! ;-)
Love,
Adrienne>>

By Monday afternoon, Kenna had started to bleed, so she didn’t get to wait until Wednesday for the transfusions Adrienne mentioned in her note. Kenna and Carsyn now both have runny noses, but gratefully with no fever, so her body is handling it!! I returned home with respiratory symptoms and stuffed up ears myself, but at least I can rest assured that they didn’t get it from me since I wasn’t here. Gramma C has been doing double duty and Aunt Kelley is leaving for Hawaii today, so I’ll be the on-call Gramma this week. Adrienne is still troubled with back pain and has an ultrasound scheduled herself. We should get results of that and have Kenna’s weekly check-up on Monday, so will let you know.

Happy Father’s Day,
MJ