Today Ezra is officially considered to be engrafted! His neutrophil count was .7 today. It has increased by a tenth each of the past few days, so we are headed in the right direction. We say all of this with hesitation because we want to know that these new cells are donor cells and not Ezra's old cells re-growing. We will not know this information until sometime next week. If the cells are Ezra's old cells, then we are back to where we started, but worse off. The doctors are acting confident that these are donor cells. We decided to accept some of their optimism and started filling in this count calendar, which has been hanging in Ezra's room staring us in the face since we got here.
Assuming that these are donor cells, we now enter the next phase of this roller coaster ride called transplant where we pray that no graft versus host disease (GVHD) develops. GVHD is when the donor cells attack the recipient's cells. It can range from mild to fatal and can effect different organs of the body. The one advantage of cord blood is that there tends to be less and milder GVHD. We're praying for none.
Ezra's GI system continues to be a mess. The doctors are not yet sure why. The hope is that as his counts come in and they reduce some of his medications, he will feel better.
Today was an incredible day for another reason. Ezra's beloved music teachers Sean and Cindy from Music for Aardvarks came to jam with Ezra. We wish we had a picture of his face when we said they were coming. Pure joy. They are very special people to make the trek to NYC to help bring some happiness to Ezra. Mission most definitely accomplished. Love you guys!
So here's to hoping Ezra keeps going up, up, up, up toward a new immune system.
Shabbat Shalom!
