Niece Update
It’s a month since my niece Winnie returned from her bone marrow transplant in Perth, Australia.
Right now, she’s in the hospital, down with a virus infection that requires an antibiotic IV. Her lack of appetite has also caused her to be a little under-nourished so that there’s another IV going into her, directly feeding her nutrients that she has not been getting. Actually, I think her lack of appetite is due to her being a fussy eater, thanks to an over-indulgent mother (my own sister, no less).
Her white blood cell count is also down, and the hospital’s had to give her growth injections to help boost the cell count.
When we were preparing for her transplant, we were given materials to read and prepare us for what she might go through. We read that the first 100 days after the transplant would be the most crucial as her body would be fighting the new marrow and treating it as an “enemy”.
There is a name for this condition and it’s called Guest vs Host Disease (GVHD).
For the first two months after the transplant, Winnie showed little signs of the reaction that we’d all read about. Which should be good. But my sister worried that something must be wrong. It was too good to be true.
Now I’m wondering, too. It’s only towards the end of the crucial 100-day post-transplant period that Winnie is showing those reactions, especially the ulcers.
Has something gone wrong?
But something my friend Beth Chin told me is helping me at this time – we need to go through the bad, and this, too, shall pass.
Besides, Winnie is under excellent care and in the Hands of the One who knows what’s best for her. Even though she has not accepted Him yet, she is still His creation. And I believe, with all my heart, that her name is in His Book of Life.
