Days +24 to +27: Waiting

After starting to despair over the lack of neutrophil growth, we finally saw a tiny increase in Ezra's neutrophils on Tuesday. The numbers did not increase today, but stayed the same. The doctor had scheduled a bone marrow aspiration for tomorrow to check the marrow directly, which would tell us whether anything was growing, and, if yes, whether they are donor or Ezra's cells. This afternoon, she canceled the aspiration because the results of the repeat study looking at Ezra's T cells came back showing 17.5% donor cells, up from 10% last week. She was happy enough with that result that she wants to put off the aspiration and wait until next week to see what the neutrophils are doing. We still need those neutrophils to grow - that is what determines engraftment and we need them to be donor neutrophils. We're ok waiting for them as long as progress is being made and Ezra is staying healthy.
On Sunday, Ezra turned to us out of the blue and said, "I feel my new cells growing." It was kind of eerie and we're not sure what he was feeling. We have been saying for a long time that Ezra is always right because he pretty much is always right. We are praying his track record continues with this one.
Ezra is still dealing with some tummy troubles, but otherwise is doing well. His sleeping schedule is totally screwy with him sleeping a lot during the day and then up until 1:00 in the morning. It's hard to break him of that schedule here where night and day aren't so different. Here's Dr. Ezra hard at work and with the space shuttle he crafted specially designed with 5 booster rockets.
Please continue to pray for new neutrophils!