Update from Melba

One more update on Michelle. Her white blood count went up considerably each day this week - usually almost doubling each day. Her Absolute Neutraphil Count (ANC) - the part of the white blood cells that fight bacteria also about doubled each day and it was those 2 things that needed to be up to a certain point before she could be discharged. Well, they got way up by Friday, but she was still having a regurgitation problem so he wanted to keep her on IV fluid drip and IV nutrition drip along with all the other 'drips' she was on - anti-nausea, anti-biotic, and who knows what else. Sat. he said maybe Monday or Tuesday discharge, but when he came in this morning (Sunday) he said she could go home if he could get the Hickman catheter pulled out. Well, after 3 tries pulling and tugging on it to no avail, he said she could at least go back to the apt. at Northgate that we've been using and that a surgeon would have to snip at it Monday to get it out. He had hoped the Sunday surgeon on call at Virginia Mason was still there, but she'd already left so we'll wait until Monday and then we can go home to Mount Vernon. Hurrah!!! This was much faster than we anticipated. We are so thankful for ALL the prayers that have gone up for her in that past months - for healing, for not so much pain, etc. She will still be very tired for a while and may not be in crowds for at least a month. As far as work goes it will probably be 2 months - don't think she'd be able to work those four 10 hour days.

We expected this to take longer based on what my boss went through, but her younger age, the reoccurrence only her second time, and the fact that she was in better health most likely were the factors for getting to this point sooner. She will continue on a coule of medications - some for up to a year - and will continue with Dr. visits on a regular basis - sure glad this can be done in Mount Vernon. She will need a PET scan in 3 weeks to look at the lymph nodes to see if the Hodgkins is actually gone and if it isn't she will have to go through radiation. So we still aren't totally out of the woods - and since we know our life on this earth is in God's hands and according to His plan we know that there are no guarantees. We've learned to take each day one at a time. Again, thanks for all your prayers and care and concern for her!