From Abbi's Mother, Candice:
When Abigail was 7 yrs old she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome. It is classified as a blood cancer. Her bone marrow does not work and make blood cells as it should. She underwent her first bone marrow transplant in may of 2008 her brother was the willing donor. And one year and a half later her disease came back. They went ahead and performed a second transplant, again with her brother as the donor only to find 4 months later she had relapsed. Her doctors at UCSF will now try one more time to do a bone marrow transplant with an unrelated donor. They have found someone and are moving forward with the transplant.
This is an update now after 3+ years of going through this journey. Abigail received her 3rd transplant on September 2nd 2010, only to find 10 months later she was relapsing for a 3rd time. so she is currently receiving vidaza for 6 months to bring her disease back into remission, then they will give her more donor cells to induce Graft Versus Host Disease. That is when the donor cells attack the recipient cells. Which she never got during any of her transplants, but what she needs to have a fighting chance. She is 11 now and the strongest person i know.
Jan 3rd 2012 we found out Abigail's MDS had turned into acute myeloid leukemia, the vidaza was not working, not giving us too many good options at first her transplant team then stepped in and decided on a plan that could work, 10 days of intense aml chemo and a stem cell boost from her last donor, well the oncology team freaked us out with possible side effects of aml chemo, which she was a higher risk having already had 3 bone marrow transplants. but she surprised them all and made it through.
Once her stem cells were infused and then engrafted they checked her bone marrow and still found a small amount of cancer cells, so because she did so well first time around with the aml chemo they decided to do it again but only for 8 days and then more stem cells they had frozen, so she is almost out of hospital after this second round (10 weeks with a 2 day break in between, in the hospital from both stem cell boosts) they are still trying to induce gvhd which was the plan all along, just a minor bump (aml) to jump over. she has another biopsy tuesday april 3rd to make sure there are no more cancer cells. (end)
Grandmom Mary:
Abbi did finally go shopping with her Mom, Dad, and brother Blake in a stretch Limo for her 'Make a Wish' she chose a shopping spree to a big Sacramento Mall. She decided on a Mac Computer, some clothes, and accessories for her wrists and hair.
Abigail Brianne Courtemanche had a total of 4 bone marrow procedures at UCSF teaching Hospital, Parnassus in Sunset District. Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) was her new diagnosis early 2012. A 4th procedure with less chance for cure in 2012 did not work for her and GVHD or graft versus host disease set in. Abigail was then taken home by her Mom and Dad to continue natural diet therapy and pain alleviation administered by her family.
On Abbi's 12th birthday she remained active when she played basketball hamming it up for pictures with her Grandpa Alan and Uncle Brian, her family from the east coast. A few weeks after that she took a turn and has been inside of the house and not able to play outside or see most of her friends.
She has been resting peacefully at home in her own bed since late September after a trip to the local Hospital where she refused all IV needles and care of the nurses and she was sedated so she could get the blood needed to keep her going because Abigail wanted her mash potatoes and honey, was drinking water, Arizona tea, and chocolate milkshakes with whipped cream.
A picc line was administered while Abbi was under sedation and that's when they found that she had not enough blood to take any real blood count measurements and yet she had previously been awake and quite alert often sometimes all afternoon into late evening. She was eating, drinking, going to bathroom with help, and asking 'why me' to her Mom and Dad. No one else was allowed to administer to her needs on Abbi's own strict orders. By then Abigail and her parents became one person responding to her call as if they knew already what was going to be asked for.
It has been a wonder to witness my granddaughter Abbi's life journey. I do know her short lifetime has been for a much higher purpose than I could now imagine. Maybe no one can.
God bless everyone who has been supportive and are praying for Abbi and her family.
When Abigail was 7 yrs old she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome. It is classified as a blood cancer. Her bone marrow does not work and make blood cells as it should. She underwent her first bone marrow transplant in may of 2008 her brother was the willing donor. And one year and a half later her disease came back. They went ahead and performed a second transplant, again with her brother as the donor only to find 4 months later she had relapsed. Her doctors at UCSF will now try one more time to do a bone marrow transplant with an unrelated donor. They have found someone and are moving forward with the transplant.
This is an update now after 3+ years of going through this journey. Abigail received her 3rd transplant on September 2nd 2010, only to find 10 months later she was relapsing for a 3rd time. so she is currently receiving vidaza for 6 months to bring her disease back into remission, then they will give her more donor cells to induce Graft Versus Host Disease. That is when the donor cells attack the recipient cells. Which she never got during any of her transplants, but what she needs to have a fighting chance. She is 11 now and the strongest person i know.
Jan 3rd 2012 we found out Abigail's MDS had turned into acute myeloid leukemia, the vidaza was not working, not giving us too many good options at first her transplant team then stepped in and decided on a plan that could work, 10 days of intense aml chemo and a stem cell boost from her last donor, well the oncology team freaked us out with possible side effects of aml chemo, which she was a higher risk having already had 3 bone marrow transplants. but she surprised them all and made it through.
Once her stem cells were infused and then engrafted they checked her bone marrow and still found a small amount of cancer cells, so because she did so well first time around with the aml chemo they decided to do it again but only for 8 days and then more stem cells they had frozen, so she is almost out of hospital after this second round (10 weeks with a 2 day break in between, in the hospital from both stem cell boosts) they are still trying to induce gvhd which was the plan all along, just a minor bump (aml) to jump over. she has another biopsy tuesday april 3rd to make sure there are no more cancer cells. (end)
Abbi did finally go shopping with her Mom, Dad, and brother Blake in a stretch Limo for her 'Make a Wish' she chose a shopping spree to a big Sacramento Mall. She decided on a Mac Computer, some clothes, and accessories for her wrists and hair.
Abigail Brianne Courtemanche had a total of 4 bone marrow procedures at UCSF teaching Hospital, Parnassus in Sunset District. Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) was her new diagnosis early 2012. A 4th procedure with less chance for cure in 2012 did not work for her and GVHD or graft versus host disease set in. Abigail was then taken home by her Mom and Dad to continue natural diet therapy and pain alleviation administered by her family.
On Abbi's 12th birthday she remained active when she played basketball hamming it up for pictures with her Grandpa Alan and Uncle Brian, her family from the east coast. A few weeks after that she took a turn and has been inside of the house and not able to play outside or see most of her friends.
She has been resting peacefully at home in her own bed since late September after a trip to the local Hospital where she refused all IV needles and care of the nurses and she was sedated so she could get the blood needed to keep her going because Abigail wanted her mash potatoes and honey, was drinking water, Arizona tea, and chocolate milkshakes with whipped cream.
A picc line was administered while Abbi was under sedation and that's when they found that she had not enough blood to take any real blood count measurements and yet she had previously been awake and quite alert often sometimes all afternoon into late evening. She was eating, drinking, going to bathroom with help, and asking 'why me' to her Mom and Dad. No one else was allowed to administer to her needs on Abbi's own strict orders. By then Abigail and her parents became one person responding to her call as if they knew already what was going to be asked for.
It has been a wonder to witness my granddaughter Abbi's life journey. I do know her short lifetime has been for a much higher purpose than I could now imagine. Maybe no one can.
God bless everyone who has been supportive and are praying for Abbi and her family.
No comments:
Post a Comment