January 2003

1/21/03

REMINDER! First Presbyterian Church of Bryan is sponsoring a blood drive for Erin from 3:00-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22 on the patio of the church (1100 Carter Creek Parkway).

1/10/03

Join me in breathing a sigh of relief that Erin has had such a strong and full recovery from the first phase of her stem cell rescue procedure. We have not had to travel to Houston since December 23, and the doctors with the Bone Marrow Transplant unit have excused us from clinic until January 21, because her blood counts and general health has been so good. That day we will make a day trip to have our consultation about the second transplant (scheduled to begin January 24). It involves a three day course of high doses of a chemotherapy drug called Melphalan (which Erin has never had before) and three days of total body irradiation (TBI). As before, we will do this toxic preconditioning to destroy any stubborn neuroblastoma cells, rest a day, and infuse Erin's own stem cells (collected in September) back into her. Then we will wait through the various side effects until her new stem cells start producing enough blood cells that she can safely go home.

For those of you in the Bryan/ College Station area, you know that the weather has been gorgeous most of the time we have been home. Erin has taken full advantage of it--bike riding, visiting friends, and loving her time at home. She was able to go back to school when classes resumed this week. Her class did an encore presentation of their Christmas play this morning, with Erin (along with everyone else) playing multiple parts (an angel, an inn keeper, and a lamb). It was priceless, and I will post a picture when I get one. She also returned to dance class and has begun working on the numbers for the spring recital.

We will need everybody's support more than ever during this last scheduled hospitalization. From some things I have read, this part of the stem cell rescue protocol is more grueling than the first part (and is certainly more unfamiliar). In addition, Vickie is teaching this semester, and Walter has many demands on his time as department chair. We will have a lot to juggle. While Erin is in Houston, Vickie will teach one class through her class web site and has a Ph.D. student to run her other two classes. Walter will be driving back and forth as his schedule permits.

One final note: There is a blood drive scheduled at First Presbyterian Church in Bryan from 3:00-8:00 p.m. on January 22 to help replace the many, many units of blood that Erin has (and will) received. I will post more details later. I do know that if you can't make it to that location on that day, you can stop by American Red Cross on University Drive anytime it is open and donate on her behalf.

I will continue to update this site while we are in the hospital.