Day +87

What a week! We started off with our Tuesday clinic visit - I was sure with Georgia's improved eating that her weight would meet our goal.. her previous weight was 9.87kg.... I didn't take my eyes off the scale as it jumped around.. 9.89kg - what?? Georgia did such a great job eating, I was so disappointed that we didn't achieve bigger results. Weight aside her eating was much improved so they decided to cut her TPN calories in half and reduce the volume to hopefully spur on even more of an appetite.

Throughout the week Georgia's Day 80 test results have trickled in, we're still waiting on the cytogenetics test but what we know so far is:

Peripheral blood chimerism - 100% donor

Bone Marrow aspirate - no blasts, 100% donor

Skin biopsy - inflammation but no signs of subcutaneous GVHD

I was told pre-transplant that it would be pretty easy to check Georgia's blood and bone marrow for what is hers and what is from her donor... why? Georgia's donor is male, she is obviously female so they look for just that.. we want to see male cells. For the rest of her life if Georgia only has blood test done it will appear that she is a male... if she wanted to have genetic testing done she will need to have her skin cells tested - her blood cells are now her own but they will always have originated in someone elses body. Bone marrow aside Georgia is all female, the transplant doesn't make her hormones male. This just scratches the surface of the complexities of transplant but even more so how fascinating the human body is.

This morning we finished our week with a clinic visit, again glued to the scale everyone was very happy to see 9.95kg - we're so close to our goal! In the words of the nurse practitioner.. "Georgia is doing fantastic". With the addition of Sirolimus her ANC and platelet counts have been closely watched as this immune suppressant can effect these levels. Georgia's ANC is solid and stable... her platelet count, although a great number has been dropping slightly since starting this new drug. We are still in wait and see mode but my hope is that her platelet count stabilizes as this really seems to be a better choice on several levels.

Next week we continue to have visits to wrap up our time at the SCCA, the week following is a big one.. Georgia will have an MRI on her left leg, the first since it was determined that we would not do radiation because biopsy results showed dead cells. The docs will watch her leg very closely over the next couple of years, her body needs to rid itself of the dead cells which takes time (possibly up to two years) but also because an AML mass tumor like she had has a high rate of recurrence. We will also have a conference to go over in detail all of the test results and essentially discharge information... come May we'll be back seeing our doctor at Children's Hospital.