so Abigail is A negative blood type but no word yet if the donor will give more cells.

 ...this means they can give her all the donors blood instead of taking out the red blood cells, which loses lymphosites. which is what they need to keep attacking her remaining cells.  her blood work today was good wbc 3.7 hemoglobin 10.6 platelets 136,000 anc 2600 everything has gone up a little. she is very excited for christmas, she has already gotten a few gifts from some amazing people, the Araizas. santa comes on saturday still, she deserves it. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! (from Mom- Candice)

December 10th, 2010 from Candice, Abigail's Mom

Even though I reported Abigail is 100% donor i asked the doctors if they could give her more cells anyway to be sure her cancer cells are gone. It was decided with some convincing that they will give Abbi more cells. We will be risking again graft versus host disease, but that is a risk we are all willing to take. they will keep giving her donor lymphocyte infusions until her immune system is strong enough to fight remaining cancer cells on its own. they have a request in to the donor for more cells. this time they only have to take blood because it will contain the lymphocytes, and hopefully give it straight to Abbi. Doctors have to check her blood type because now Abbi has a whole different immune system and new marrow, so being all donor cells she should have converted to the donors blood type, which they think is A- negative. they have to check this because if for some reason she is not converted they have to deplete the red blood cells which loses some of the lymphocytes. but we are confident she will be the donors blood type now. she is doing well and very energetic. she just got just dance 2 on the Wii from grandma Kate so she has been dancing. 

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.

A final note from Abbi's Mom, Candice

Sunday, December 5th, 2010 2:34 PM

quick update, abigail is 100% donor and they won't be giving her more cells. pray she stays that way. will update soon

This is Grandma Mary:  WOO, HOO!! ALL PRAISE GOES TO GOD!!!

Abigail's counts are way up!

Hi everyone! Abbi is doing great! we are in san francisco now she had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday to see where her engraftment is and she is recieving ivig right now. her blood counts are good, i drew blood on monday and her platelets had stayed the same at 135,000 her hemoglobin was up a little at 9.8 her anc and wbc had gone down but that is fluctuation which is normal, so during her biopsy yesterday they also drew a cbc and her platelets have gone up to 141,000 and her hemoglobin up to 10.4. it is all gonna go up and down, but her platelets are what they watch. they need to keep going up. so they have requested more cells from the donor to bump abbi to 100% no word yet they will know by the time they get the results of biopsy back. if for some reason the donor is not available then they will give her immune therapy which is the opposite of prograf, it stimulates her immune system to wake up and fight and hopefully cause gvhd, just a little. they checked her t cell and b cell funtion today, drew 7 tubes of blood, so that might make her hemoglobin drop a point or 2. probably too early still for her immune system to be normal again. and she has too much iron in her blood from all of the transfusions over the yrs. so once her hemoglobin is at 11 they will start getting rid of her blood to throw away the iron. abbi is asking to use the computer so have a great day and god bless! Candice (Mom) Later after we got home it was reported that Abigail's bone marrow testing revealed she is 100 percent donor now!  PRAISE GOD's DIVINE HEALING GRACE!!

Thanksgiving November 2010 Fun

The Courtemanche family goes to Shingletown for a couple Christmas trees and some snow fun! Obviously Abigail is feeling pretty good and looking real happy to be going...and brother Blake is beaming because it's their first trip to the snow this year.

Progress Just Before Thanksgiving 2010...

Monday, November 22, 2010 7:59 PM, PST

today abbi's bloodwork is good, keeps going up. platelets 137,000 up from 127,000 last week, neutrophils 3,600 up from 3,174, wbc 5,000 up from 4,600 hemoglobin 9.2. that goes down 2 points every week but not a concern cause i draw her blood every week. that is one of the last to recover. her engraftment came back the same 100% overall but still 99% in her t cells. her bone marrow biopsy is nov. 30th. we stopped her prograf today, so pray for a little gvhd just enough to know her new cells are attacking her bad cells. she can get a bad case though. we dont want that.  we are planning on heading up to cut a tree down friday and to see some snow. have a happy thanksgiving everyone. GOD BLESS!

Abigail's November 17th, 2010 checkup at UCSF Children's Hospital

Abbi's engrafment dropped by 1%. not a relapse but a small risk for one. so they took her off her prograf, well she will be done on monday night. and repeated her engraftment studies, maybe a donor lymphosite infusion if the donor agrees. they will do everything they can to prevent a relapse. but her platelets are climbing 127,000 on monday from 114,000 last week. her hemoglobin is dropping slowly. but not a concern. just by a few points. as long as everything keeps going up and her engraftment does not go down anymore. we should be fine. but they want her at 100%. brings back bad memories, that are still fresh. seems like we get good news only to get knocked down again. PLEASE PRAY FOR HER. GOD IS GREAT!

Abigail recovers in record time!

Here is the newest message from Abigail's Mom on progress:

yesterday was abigail's doctor appointment. post transplant day+56. she is doing great! her platelets are climbing. her wbc and anc (white blood cells and absolute neutrophil count) are up and down but that is to be expected. those don't usually completely recover till almost a year post transplant. her lymphosytes are climbing which suggests to them that she has some graft vs lukemia going on in her body. just means that her new marrow is killing whatever is left of her lukemia cells. and we are tapering her prograf. down .5 every week. till she is completely off by dec 8th. i guess that is very aggressive, by day 100. usually kids stay on it for 6 months. and this will be about 3 months. they do want her to have a little gvhd. just the skin and gut. she would get a rash and some stomache pains, diareah maybe nausia. 
so tuesday the 2nd she is having a bone marrow biopsy to make sure she is 100% donor there also. and on nov 3rd is her monthly ivig (immune booster) then we get to go home for at least 2 weeks. 

Abigail breaks out!

If all goes according to plan the UCSF Doctor team is letting Abigail return home with her family on November 3rd, 2010.  The family now has a new used vehicle for her monthly doctor visits to San Francisco Children's Hospital (Parnassus Street- Sunset District). I will post more news when they arrive as it comes.  Bless them all! 
    
Here is an excerpt from her Caringbridge page on her great progress:

Abbi's Mom says:

so things keep moving in the right direction. abbi is off hydration as of today. off of her blood pressure med. she is 100 percent donor. the docs are gonna talk about tapering her down from prograf in the next 2 weeks. and having her totally off in 6 weeks to waken up her new immune system. they have to be careful not to give her too bad gvhd. but they will hopefully taper her quicker than last time. she looks good and the doc said her stubborness is paying off. he couldnt believe she bounced back so quick from the peri engraftment syndrome that had her in icu and on oxegyn. but we all know abbi is very strong willed. i haven't been updating as much, probably now once every couple days or week depending on things. we just can't wait to go home. we are getting new carpet in our house. and we got our new car. so we are happy. ESPECIALLY HAPPY THAT ABBI IS DOING WELL! 

                  

The home stretch...

Abigail has been in hospital for about two months now and it's finally time for her to leave for the family house down the street and going home will be in a few more weeks possibly November 3rd. She has survived severe reactions to chemotherapy, radiation, and drugs pumped through the "chest port" which she endures everytime she has one of these frankenstein experiments done to her. Not to mention the torture her body gives her while the new white blood cells, red cells, and platelets are forming and the reactions every time new blood cell growth begins to occur. Now she has the chance to experience life on the outside of her small hospital room again.

Click picture for larger image

BENEFIT DINNER GIVEN BY APRIL AND THE VETERANS AT ANDERSON VETERANS HALL!

Just a thought for my grand-kids, my daughter Candice, and her husband Dennis. I love you very much and I am so proud that you are accomplishing this great task of walking your daughter through this very deep valley in her young life...just so you know. The spaghetti benefit dinner-slash-country western band music evening is coming up this weekend and I got my outfit together today. Grandmom 

Here I am serving dinner to the crowd...it was a HUGE success for them and now they have a slightly used silver Honda Accord to get them back and forth for Abigail's UCSF treatment and monthly trips for her Doctor appointments afterward.

Brother Blake goes to Charter School in San Francisco

Blake started his first day of school today in San Francisco.

Just pictures...

Abigail gets down to London Bridge...

 

Maybe this time I'll win...

There is only so much that can be said for bone marrow transplants. You have one and it is good, then it isn't... so, you have to wait a little bit and go have another one.

 Abigail gets tooth work done

street-clothes are traded for hospital gown

making sure that the chest port doesn't leak!

Chest port goes in for chemotherapy (therapy?)

when hairs fall off they itch so you have the nurse shave it all off!

She feels trapped after approximately one month of hospitalization and isolation for her third bone marrow transplant procedure.

 

Tubes, machines, and shots...oh my!