Well, I totally misunderstood Dr. Tolar’s email from Saturday, but I guess it let me have a couple good days while we prepared for our return to Minnesota. Kiira still does not need chemo before her boost on Wednesday as he wants to preserve her organs, but here are the numbers as they relate to types of T cells:
CD3: 48% donor (down from 74%);
CD15: 0% donor (down from 5%).
While she is on the way to losing her transplant, the hope is that the boost will add cd15 cells and they’ll increase because the cd3 is present and cd3 helps the cd15 in our immune systems. He said it’s unusual for the transplant to act like this–usually CD15 is higher than CD3, but by 6 months the numbers even out, so usually they’re either both around 100 or 0. At this point, the lack of cd15 is dragging down the cd3 and this scenario may be because she developed an antigen to the donor. This boost will use up the last of the donor blood, but if she has developed an antigen and therefore, antibodies, we could not use the same donor if she needs a second transplant. Keep in mind, she only had one perfectly matched donor. This was/is our best chance in my mind, but God has His own ways sometimes.
They will give Kiira the boost on Wednesday, test her in 30 and 90 days and decide where to go from there. She will remain on CSA, the immunosuppressant, so that means she will continue to be in her bubble (in a mask and not in crowded places) for at least 3 more months. Thanks to El Niño, it’s probably better off we stay inside anyway.
I can’t even fathom going through another transplant again, uprooting my family, hoping the second go is as easy on Kiira as before, but successful. I keep reminding myself, one day at a time, so today I got answers. Not what I wanted to hear, but I got them and now it’s just more waiting, and trusting.
Tomorrow she goes in the OR at 11:30 am CST, so please pray that she does well under anesthesia, she has no strictures in her esophagus, her biopsy heals quickly, and the central line goes in without a hitch and Kiira doesn’t pull at it. And for my girls at home, who said they are trying to be brave and not cry because they miss me.
