Friday, June 13, 2008

Not a great day - getting worried

We were back in the hospital for evaluations today (Friday) and we met with the pulmonary (lung) specialist as well as the program Director. They are becoming increasingly worried about the fluid in her lungs and have decided to hold off on the chemo planned for Monday. Fluid in the lungs is a concern as it is a potential indicator of congestive heart failure (the heart working too hard to pump blood around the body). They will do an x-ray of her lungs on Monday and decide one of three options: 1) start on Tuesday of next week, 2) delay a full week and try to address the lung issue, or 3) hold off indefinitely and consider other options. Of course we want to be as aggressive ans urgent as possible, but we also do not want to add risk if by waiting we can get a more optimal result. This is our first set back. We have been moving at incredible speed and have contacted the program, done the evaluations, been accepted, and done the stem cell collection faster than any other in the program, our aggressiveness and advocacy have paid off. However, now we have this issue ahead of us. We both hate going into the weekend with this hanging over our heads.