Jenny Continues to Improve!
It has been almost 3 years since Jenny’s bone marrow transplant (6-17-99)
and she is finally thriving. What a long, difficult journey that was —
but so worth it! What a joyful, loving person she is!
Steve takes Jenny to the Courage Center for physical therapy 3 times a
week. After 4 weeks of that, Jenny will work on her strength and
conditioning at the YMCA pool closer to our home. Yesterday Jenny got out
on her recumbent bicycle. She rode for a solid hour. The neighbors came
out to see her and then called me to tell me how great she looks.
Jenny’s immune system still struggles. Her counts are still low, but
getting closer to the low end of the normal range. Platelets are 146,000,
hemoglobin is 11.2 and white cells are 5300. Due to her weakened immune
system, Jenny had HPV virus on her cervix. The cells were biopsied and
were determined to be high risk for cancer (cervical cancer). Jenny had
laser surgery to remove the atypical cells and the doctor felt she got all
of them. Jenny will have 2 more laser surgeries to remove more HPV cells
later in May and June.
Jenny had 2 bouts of pink eye and ear infections in both ears. It took her
20 days to get rid of the ear infections and more than 2 weeks for the
pink eye. Everything she gets causes her immune system to work so hard
and it is during those times that we worry about her CMV virus becoming
active again (that is what destroyed her retinas and it can be deadly).
Steve stays at home with Jenny and now they have more time for fun things;
like shopping, eating out, playing cards, bike riding, etc. They have
started a new thing where Jenny chooses a recipe and Steve prepares it
with Jenny watching. They surprised me with chicken cordon bleu last
week! Jenny is still an enthusiastic recipe gatherer. She writes them in
a notebook and then types them on our computer. Jenny also works on the
Smith family tree. She loves to get e-mail and she can spend 4-6 hours a
day typing on the computer. We feel these are skills that she can use
later when she is able to get a part-time job. (Or maybe full-time, some
day). We are looking into Vocational Rehabilitation for Jenny, probably
as soon as June or July.
Jenny still sees Dr. Charnas (the wonderful neurologist that solved the
attack on Jenny’s nerves). He smiles broadly and tells Jenny that it is
patients like her that make him so happy that he is a doctor. In February
she saw Dr. Transfeldt (he did her 2 spine surgeries in 1995 + 1996), and
he got all choked up. Dr. Davies had been keeping him up-to-date on
Jenny’s progress (or lack of) and from the last update he had he was
expecting her to remain wheelchair bound for the rest of her life. He
hugged her and let her see how delighted he was that she was walking
again. And of course, we still see Dr. Davies every 6 weeks and she
constantly marvels at how strong Jenny has remained through all of this.
She beams each time she sees Jenny. She truly shares in our joy over
Jenny’s transplant recovery and the prospect that some of the previous
damage done to Jenny’s neurological function might someday improve
significantly.
And so it goes, one day at a time. We will never take another day for
granted again.
As always, thank you for your continued love, support and encouragement.
Keep your prayers coming for us and we will do the same for you.
The Smiths
Steve, Dianne, Jenny and Jason
