Hello Everyone!
Marcia came home from the hospital on Saturday! She is feeling good and doing very well. All her blood numbers are where they should be and are staying there. The process for the transplant has begun and continues. The transplant should take place at the end of September if everything continues to go as it's supposed to. The donors - there are two exact matches! - are both somewhere in Europe so the logistics of that have to be arranged along with all of the prep work for her. There are a lot of logistics that go into the procedure!!
Marcia has been down to the store twice and has been so happy to get back there. She can't really come back to work there yet, but she is going to be doing some of her wonderful page kits from home as she goes through the process and recovery. That will be a "win/win" as it will give her something great to do and the store will have more of her cute kits!
More again soon!
Best Regards!
Marcia's Family
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Marcia's Great News for Friday August 21st!
Well guess what?!!!
Marcia is going home tomorrow! She may need a couple of last minute "fine tune" procedures, however her return home on Saturday is just about for certain! Can you imagine having been in the hospital since July the 7th!? We know some of you can because many of you who have been through similar health challenges have been to see her and encourage her with your great stories and support. For the rest of us, we can only just imagine. Yuck!
Next steps will be additional testing and then getting set up and ready for the transplant. We can now let you know that a donor has been found. We didn't want to say anything until it was as sure as it can be with things like this, but there were not one but two perfect matches on that wonderful national registry we talked about in one of our earlier postings! Massive amounts of paperwork have been completed and the process has begun. Of course we'll keep you posted as everything in that procedure moves forward.
So.... great news today!
Very best wishes and thanks to all of you who have been and continue to be such wonderful friends!
Marcia's Family
Marcia is going home tomorrow! She may need a couple of last minute "fine tune" procedures, however her return home on Saturday is just about for certain! Can you imagine having been in the hospital since July the 7th!? We know some of you can because many of you who have been through similar health challenges have been to see her and encourage her with your great stories and support. For the rest of us, we can only just imagine. Yuck!
Next steps will be additional testing and then getting set up and ready for the transplant. We can now let you know that a donor has been found. We didn't want to say anything until it was as sure as it can be with things like this, but there were not one but two perfect matches on that wonderful national registry we talked about in one of our earlier postings! Massive amounts of paperwork have been completed and the process has begun. Of course we'll keep you posted as everything in that procedure moves forward.
So.... great news today!
Very best wishes and thanks to all of you who have been and continue to be such wonderful friends!
Marcia's Family
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Marcia's news for Tuesday August 18th
Good Afternoon:
Some good news! Marcia can have visitors again. And phone calls too! We would still like to limit visits to 20 or 30 minutes and it might be a good idea to call first (206/364-0500). You can also bring her caramel frappachinos again as she can have those too!
The other good news is that she may be going home soon! Not completely sure of the day but it may come as soon as this weekend. Her next treatment step will be to go to the doctors at Fred Hutchinson so that they can transition over to the transplant preparation process.
So, visits and phone calls are OK again and so are caramel frappachinos! Please continue with no other food or flowers or plants.
Thanks!
Marcia and her family
Some good news! Marcia can have visitors again. And phone calls too! We would still like to limit visits to 20 or 30 minutes and it might be a good idea to call first (206/364-0500). You can also bring her caramel frappachinos again as she can have those too!
The other good news is that she may be going home soon! Not completely sure of the day but it may come as soon as this weekend. Her next treatment step will be to go to the doctors at Fred Hutchinson so that they can transition over to the transplant preparation process.
So, visits and phone calls are OK again and so are caramel frappachinos! Please continue with no other food or flowers or plants.
Thanks!
Marcia and her family
Friday, August 14, 2009
SPECIAL BULLETIN FOR FRIDAY AUGUST 14TH
Good Morning:
We and Marcia's doctors are going to a NO VISITORS status for her for awhile. She is now experiencing many of the effects of the chemo, which is normal but she is not feeling well at all. In addition, it appears that she has some infection going on somewhere as she has an elevated temp.
This is not a dire situation and goes very much with the process however we want to let you know right away about no visits for now.
We will of course keep you updated as soon as things occur and/or change.
Thanks again!!
Marcia's family
We and Marcia's doctors are going to a NO VISITORS status for her for awhile. She is now experiencing many of the effects of the chemo, which is normal but she is not feeling well at all. In addition, it appears that she has some infection going on somewhere as she has an elevated temp.
This is not a dire situation and goes very much with the process however we want to let you know right away about no visits for now.
We will of course keep you updated as soon as things occur and/or change.
Thanks again!!
Marcia's family
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Marcia's news for Wednesday August 12th
Good Morning!
Marcia's process of getting ready for a bone marrow transplant continues. She is still extremely tired and really needs her rest. As before, no food or drink or flowers or plants any more please as we need to keep the risk of infection or illness to an absolute minimum. Everything is going well now and moving in the right direction so we want to do all that we can to keep that happening.
The phone remains unplugged. We love you and we know you love her, but it was ringing so much she wasn't able to nap and rest. Some of you have asked for her email address as apparently you would prefer to email her directly instead of commenting here. Here it is:
marciamcnulty@comcast.net
As always, we appreciate your love and concern and prayers.
Marcia's family
Marcia's process of getting ready for a bone marrow transplant continues. She is still extremely tired and really needs her rest. As before, no food or drink or flowers or plants any more please as we need to keep the risk of infection or illness to an absolute minimum. Everything is going well now and moving in the right direction so we want to do all that we can to keep that happening.
The phone remains unplugged. We love you and we know you love her, but it was ringing so much she wasn't able to nap and rest. Some of you have asked for her email address as apparently you would prefer to email her directly instead of commenting here. Here it is:
marciamcnulty@comcast.net
As always, we appreciate your love and concern and prayers.
Marcia's family
Monday, August 10, 2009
Marcia's news for Monday August 10th
Hello Everyone! Lots of news today.
First, the effects of the chemo have hit to some degree... not anywhere as hard as they might have and as they may yet, but now she is really, really tired. To be expected, but of course no fun at all.
For that reason we are going to limit visits to 20 minutes and we've unplugged the phone because it was ringing so much she couldn't get any rest.
In addition, because of the high susceptibility to infection, we are now going to have to go with no outside food or drink for her at all, along with no flowers or plants. In other words, please don't bring her anything organic at all... to eat or drink or to have in her room.
And as usual, no, no, no visits with even a remote possiblity of direct or indirect exposure to illness...! Our job now is to keep her from getting sick with anything (and keep her blood numbers right) until she can have a bone marrow transplant.
The transplant donor search process has begun through the search coordinator on her medical team. It turns out that none of her family who have been tested are matches, however the possibility of an unrelated match seems pretty strong, in part because there are many volunteers of a Scandinavian heritage.
The timing for a transplant is not yet clear and that is being discussed and decided. There may be another round of chemo first or, if a viable donor is available, it may be done soon or even right away. We'll let you know as soon as we know anything more on that.
We'll probably be updating these pages every other or every few days instead of every day as right now there's not a lot of new information on a daily basis. She's just following along with the process and it's going very well. Of course any big news we'll post right away!
Thanks again to everyone!
Marcia's Family
First, the effects of the chemo have hit to some degree... not anywhere as hard as they might have and as they may yet, but now she is really, really tired. To be expected, but of course no fun at all.
For that reason we are going to limit visits to 20 minutes and we've unplugged the phone because it was ringing so much she couldn't get any rest.
In addition, because of the high susceptibility to infection, we are now going to have to go with no outside food or drink for her at all, along with no flowers or plants. In other words, please don't bring her anything organic at all... to eat or drink or to have in her room.
And as usual, no, no, no visits with even a remote possiblity of direct or indirect exposure to illness...! Our job now is to keep her from getting sick with anything (and keep her blood numbers right) until she can have a bone marrow transplant.
The transplant donor search process has begun through the search coordinator on her medical team. It turns out that none of her family who have been tested are matches, however the possibility of an unrelated match seems pretty strong, in part because there are many volunteers of a Scandinavian heritage.
The timing for a transplant is not yet clear and that is being discussed and decided. There may be another round of chemo first or, if a viable donor is available, it may be done soon or even right away. We'll let you know as soon as we know anything more on that.
We'll probably be updating these pages every other or every few days instead of every day as right now there's not a lot of new information on a daily basis. She's just following along with the process and it's going very well. Of course any big news we'll post right away!
Thanks again to everyone!
Marcia's Family
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Marcia's news for Sunday August 9th
Hello Again Everyone!
Marcia has now completed the second, longer course of chemo. She continues to feel pretty well however she is very tired and, as we said in a previous entry, she is very susceptible to infection now. She still wants visitors however those "rules" we listed in an earlier entry and that we'll repeat at the bottom here, still apply.
The very good news is that her numbers continue to improve and go where she needs them to go. And so far she is having very few of the "big" chemo side effects.
We will know more tomorrow about the status of a transplant and of course we'll let you know what we find out.
Thanks again for all your great interest, concern and help!
Marcia's Family
The Marcia Visit "Rules"
~ No flowers or plants
~ No fresh fruit or veggies
~ and, worst of all, no more hugs and kisses
~ Please use the hand sanitizer mounted on the walls in the hall before coming into the room
~ Please, please, please if you are sick, have been around someone who is sick, think you might have been exposed to something or are getting sick.... call her, but do not come to visit!
~ Because she is more tired please limit your visit to no more than an hour.
Marcia has now completed the second, longer course of chemo. She continues to feel pretty well however she is very tired and, as we said in a previous entry, she is very susceptible to infection now. She still wants visitors however those "rules" we listed in an earlier entry and that we'll repeat at the bottom here, still apply.
The very good news is that her numbers continue to improve and go where she needs them to go. And so far she is having very few of the "big" chemo side effects.
We will know more tomorrow about the status of a transplant and of course we'll let you know what we find out.
Thanks again for all your great interest, concern and help!
Marcia's Family
The Marcia Visit "Rules"
~ No flowers or plants
~ No fresh fruit or veggies
~ and, worst of all, no more hugs and kisses
~ Please use the hand sanitizer mounted on the walls in the hall before coming into the room
~ Please, please, please if you are sick, have been around someone who is sick, think you might have been exposed to something or are getting sick.... call her, but do not come to visit!
~ Because she is more tired please limit your visit to no more than an hour.
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