More Twistes, Turns and Bumps In The Road

Hi to everyone, and we hope you all had a pleasant Easter. Well were to start, Matt was put on hold for the Hickman Line because of problems getting his IV Meds changed over to pill form. Now we are back on the schedule tomorrow morning at 9:00 am to have his Hickman line put back in. Matt is still on a couple of IV Meds that will be changed over tomorrow we hope.
GVHD has shown up in a rash form on Matts skin now. The team is all over that and treating him with steroids to help fight against it. Matt will be put back on TPN today as he is not eating or drinking enough and is rapidly loosing weight. A little extra layer is OK when you are going through this, but Matt has pretty much lost as much as we would like. That's one heck of a diet! As of today he has lost 22lbs.
We are still hoping to get out of the hospital either Thursday or Sunday this week. Oh by the way TPN is IV form of feeding patients who cant eat. Matt will be on IV TPN and IV fluids when they discharge us, along with lots of other Meds pill form. I'm well onto my way in having my nurses degree as Steve is too. Now we have another profession to fall back on (he-he).
Today is day 39 post transplant, and we are going stir crazy!! We asked to have a stationary bicycle put in his room to keep us busy. We now know how hamsters feel when running on the wheel in their cage. We have been in ISO which means isolation since the 3rd of March. That means we cant leave the room without a escort making sure we don't touch anything. It's because of the infection in Matts Hickman Line, he's not contagious or anything. They are just ultra careful on this floor because of all the immune suppressed patents. We have bee here at Children's Hospital since February 4th, 2008 and as nice of a place this is we really feel that we have overstayed our time here and can't wait to leave. Keeping up the faith and still staying positive as possible. We can and will beat this!! Lots of Love the Yantzers

Matt & Fiona

Happy St. Patty Day

Today is March 15th and Matt is doing pretty good on his counts. His anc's are around 7,000, and his white and red blood counts keep going up. The doctors are treating his GVHD in hopes to make it go away soon. They are trying to ween him off all the IV medications to pill form. We have tried twice unsuccessfully to ween him off his pain med's, The doctors say that will be the last one to go. We have had a few problems with the new picc line so its coming out on Monday and the Hickman line will be put back in. We hope to get out of the hospital in a week or so. We will be in Seattle for approx 3 months on an out patient basis. Nicole developed double lung pneumonia last week but is recovering really well. Hi to all and keep the emails coming Matt enjoys them. Lynn and Family

Matt's Diagnosis on GVHD

Matt has been doing pretty good this week till Thursday night when he started showing Lot's of symptoms of GVHD. Friday morning the doctors decided to to a procedure that they use a scope and camera to go down Matt's throat and check out everything all the way to his stomach and beyond. They took 4 biopsies also to make sure of their findings. The pathologist and Doctors just told me that he tested positive for GVHD in his stomach. They assumed that was the case and started treating him yesterday with steroids. The team is a little concerned on how fast it came on so they are checking for additional infections elsewhere too. On a scale of 1-4, 4 being worse Matt has been diagnosed as a 2+. We are very confident in the Doctors here and believe Matt Will be o.k.
Now not to worry I'm told that a little GVHD is good because Matt will be less likely to have a recurrence of the Leukemia that is being treated for.
In GVHD the immune cells from the donated marrow (the graft) attack the body of the transplant patient (the host). GVHD can affect many different parts of the body. The skin, eyes, stomach, and intestines are affected most often.
After this journey is finally done, we will have learned more about inner strength and the power of hope than we ever thought possible. Thanks for all the thoughts Love and Prayers. The Yantzer Family

Day 22 post transplant March 7, 2008

Well we have been patently been waiting for Matt's count to come in and on day 17 they did. His first anc was 190 and today his anc's were in the 1500's that's great! His white blood count is 2.6, Normal is 4.5-13.5 so he has a ways to go yet. He isn't producing any red blood cells yet but that's normal.
The doctors have been watching Matt very close for signs of GVHD. Matt has had a few fevers and other signs of GVHD this last week. All was looking very promising till last night when Matt started showing lots of symptoms of GVHD. Today at 2:00 Matt will be undergoing a biopsy of his stomach and other areas to see if he dose in fact have GVHD. They are somewhat certain that he dose have it so they are planning to start treatment today to help slow it down.
Maybe we should have another blood drive. Matt has needed 12 units of blood and 18 units of platelets since diagnosis. Matt will need more transfusions in the coming days be cause his body isn't producing on its own yet.
Matt has brought smiles to a lot of people here. He has made his own club, its called the banana club. You have to be special to be in the club ( in isolation ).I think he looks better in PINK don't you. Love to all Lynn and Matt

Matthew & Mom Making People Laugh