In The Loop

I feel like we are all in this together so I want to keep everyone in the loop. The past weekend went by fast. My parents flew back to Salt Lake City. Ethan’s staying in Seattle at the hospital with us for the week. Ashtyn is neurologically doing better. Her speech is no longer slurred and doesn’t feel buzzed anymore. At this point we’ll figure the drug Marinol, which was suppose to help increase her appetite and lessen nausea, was the culprit. It was stopped in addition to a couple of other medications. She is more steady on her feet but continues to struggle walking (I suspect neuropathy/numbness of her feet has a lot to do with that). The concern on the forefront right now is abdominal cramping and diarrhea. We’ve been trying different approaches to help the problem but decided it was time for her to get a endoscopy and colonoscopy to check for graft verses host disease in her gut, which is when the donated cells attack her tissues. The procedure will be done sometime this week. Graft verses host disease would present a handful of unwanted issues. Best case scenario is that zero graft verses host disease will be seen and her intestinal difficulties will resolve as adenovirus and electrolyte needs resolve. Please pray for no graft verses host disease. We notice and are grateful for the small steps forward that happen each day. Most recent, Ashtyn has had energy to stay awake for around 12 hours a day, without a nap, for three days straight! That really is unreal and totally awesome!