EASTER UPDATE

Spring Greetings!

In this age of information overload we have been conscientiously endeavouring not to overwhelm you with too many updates on Sara's progress since her Stem Cell Transplant.

(Translation : I have been too disorganized

to apply my "4 word per minute" typing prowess to posting a blog entry for almost 2 months !)

Sara has been home from the hospital for about 5 weeks.

She has traded in the IV pole, hung with multiple bags of medication, that she wheeled around at the hospital, for a shopping bag full of pills. She has pills to regulate every type of bodily function that you can think of and a few you have probably never even heard of.

Sara returns to the Foothills Hospital outpatient Transplant Clinic a couple of times a week to have her blood counts and medication levels monitored. The Doctors and Nurses at the clinic manage the side effects of all of the drugs that Sara is required to take to minimize the severity of her body's attempt to reject the new Stem Cells. This "Graft vs Host" reaction has manifested itself as swelling around Sara's eyes, mild rashes on her skin, intermittent nausea and a persistent sense of fatigue. (That being said - she still has more energy than I have ever had!)

Despite the fatigue, Sara has been taking advantage of the recent spring weather

to get out for walks around the neighbourhood and trips to the Farmers Market with friends. With Erin and Ali being out of school on spring break, Sara was able to convince the staff at the Transplant Clinic to allow us to all go to Canmore for a couple of days. They had advised Sara that she was to stay within an hour of the hospital for the first few months after the transplant but she has been progressing well and her blood counts have been reasonably stable.

The real reason for the trip to Canmore was to determine if we could still fend for ourselves. For the past 6 months a parade of delicious dinners have been materializing on our front step. These incredible meals, left by friends and neighbours, have been invaluable in helping us through this challenge.

There has been, however, a very real concern that none of us would remember how to cook anymore. Fortunately, we were able to scrape together enough collective culinary memory between the four of us to concoct a couple of meals. (Sara can't eat at restaurants and since we didn't have the foresight to bring my Mom along we actually had to prepare something on our own !)

Suffice to say that the menu wasn't of the quality that we have become accustomed to with others cooking for us - but we did manage to keep from starving.

Over the next six weeks the Doctors hope to be able to decrease the number of medications that Sara is required to take. Over that same time period it is hoped that Sara's body will be able to generate a normal number of blood cells to help make her less susceptible to infection. With a reduction in drugs and an increase in her blood counts the Doctors anticipate that Sara will start to regain strength, appetite and stamina.

The success of the Stem Cell Transplant in eliminating the leukemia will be assessed with a bone marrow biopsy that is normally done about a hundred days after the transplant (likely sometime in mid-May).

Until then, we continue to enjoy having Sara at home and are all learning the

value of patience in recognizing and appreciating small improvements in her condition.

There has been a host of friends who have been helping Sara get back and forth from the hospital to appointments and helping run daily errands to whom we are sincerely grateful.

We all hope that the frequency of these visits will be significantly

reduced with time.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter weekend and look forward to the coming Spring.

Cheers

Kevin for Sara, Ali Erin and Mona