Marcia's news for December 12th

Hello Everyone:

Today we have some serious news for you.

The 'Acute Graft versus Host Disease' (GVHD) that we told you about in our last entry has now become a much more dangerous problem because it did not respond to the initial and most common course of treatment which is steroids and several other drugs. GVHD is a condition in which cells in the donor marrow see the recipient’s tissues as foreign and react against them. This creates massive inflammation which then leads to infection. It can occur on the skin as a rash, and Marcia has a bit of that, and it can also show up in the liver. However it is most lethal in the digestive tract and that is what she is fighting now. This is not a staph or other type of infection, although the system can be so weakened by it that those occur.

As we said, the first course of attack for it is the steroids, and treatment with those for more than a week did not work at all. Yesterday she finished up another treatment attempt that is called Antithymocyte globulin or ATG. This consists of four days of IV treatment in increasing doses. It is a very heavy protocol and some patients do not handle it well. Unfortunately this treatment has the effect of antibodies to the T cells to "back them off" so to speak, which further lowers an already fragile immune system and even if successful leaves the patient even more vulnerable to all kinds of infections, internal and external. And even if successful, it does not guarantee that the bone marrow transplant itself will succeed in treating the original disease.

We waited through this week to know more and see how she tolerated this treatment as some people don't handle it well and have to be taken back off of it prior to completion however she has done just fine with it. It may be a week or two before we know whether or not it has been successful. Even if successful it will be even longer before we know if this will be a long term chronic condition for her.

We have tried to be very positive with all of our news while also being accurate and realistic. However we feel that we must let you know now that if this cannot be treated and/or controlled it is the most lethal secondary effect of transplants and she could die from it. She is awake, alert and eating and participating in her walking and other therapies however she is also fighting for her life. We decided that you should know that and understand it as this process goes forward. For now please no visits and no phone calls as she needs all of her strength and focus to be on resting and fighting this off.

We will keep you posted with any news that develops however, as we said, this is day by day and hour by hour and we probably won't know much right away.

Please, please keep her in your prayers.
Thank you all,
Marcia's Family