DAY ZERO

She's been in the hospital a week - undergone 13.2 gray of radiation treatments and one chemo treatment of etoposide in order to effectively kill off her bone marrow (and leukemia) and make room for her new bone marrow, which she received today.  It was kind of anti-climactic - the staff hooked her up to a little bag of what looks like tomato soup and it took about 15 minutes to enter her bloodstream.  Now we just have to wait for it to engraft, which could take anywhere from two to four weeks.  We'll know that is has engrafted once her blood levels start to increase from zero.  She's not quite down to zero now, but she's getting close.  This is because her old marrow is now ineffective, so in order to keep her up and running for the next couple of weeks, she'll need to receive multiple transfusions of blood and platelets.  Unfortunately this means that she'll probably not be able to see the kids until she is released, but it also means we're getting closer to her being able to go home.  And we've been blessed that the kids have been able to visit with her every day since she's been in the hospital.

But for now, we're taking it one day at a time, and today is Day Zero!  It was another good day.  :)