As many of you know Michalla had to go to the ICU last night. She wasn't able to breathe on her own and her liver wasn't working properly. She also had fevers of 104 degrees. It was a long night (thank you Clint for all your help). Michalla slept according to the nurses a total of 1.5 hours, none of it in a row, just cat naps added together. They gave her a ton of Lasix and she peed a liter of fluid. This helped some of the fluid in her lungs. They also discovered her central line (double broviac) was infected. They did a surgery today to remove that. She will have to have another one put in in a couple of days once she is more stable.
The good news is that her ANC count is 700! That is remarkable. As long as her count is still above 500 tomorrow, today will be considered the day she engrafts. On our calendar no one guessed today. Everyone is very surprised. Faith was the closest with her guess of tomorrow (which she only guessed because it is her birthday). All the docs and nurses thought it was at least a week out or more. (Gotta love the tender mercies) Even though she feels miserable the counts coming in are helping her mouth sores. She has actually been able to swallow just a little and should continue to heal. Michalla told me a week ago that the day she can drink again will be the best day of her life EVER! Hopefully that day is soon.
To be able to come home she has to be able to eat and drink and take her pills orally. She will go home with plenty of IV medicines but some of them can only be given orally. There are many other things that have to happen but her mouth and gi tract healing up are huge steps.
Michalla still has a fever of 102 and is on oxygen but they have moved her back upstairs to her room. ( Yay!) They sent her up with her own nurse that just has to sit here and care for her one on one since she is very volatile. What a blessing to be out of the ICU though. Fighting for air last night was so scary. Even though she is still on oxygen and the breathing is very labored it is nothing like last night.
I know prayers are heard and answered. The outpouring of love and support shown to Michalla and my family is almost hard to comprehend. From the facebook post that Michalla was in the ICU people where putting Michalla's name in the temple, fasting, praying and sending love. I have a firm testimony of miracles. I know the Lord heard everyone of your prayers. I can't thank you enough. I have the best support system in the world. I am surrounded by angles both near and far. I love you all.
I am a friend of Tiffany and Lilly from Lovely Lilly's page. I have been praying for your sweet Michalla ever since I heard her story when she met Lilly in the halls. She is such a strenght and inspiration to these sweet children fighting the same fight. I know she is loved and prayed for. I heard she was having a rough time yesterday and just had to pop in and see how she was doing today. Yesterday My husband and I both signed up on bethematch.org to register to be donors and well as some friends. I learned about the life saving effects of Bone Marrow donors from Tiffany telling me about Michalla. She is touching lives you don't even know about with her strenght. I pray she continues to see her counts go up and starts to heal and will be home soon.
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