Daley Ponderings

We have lots of good news to report. Grace has been improving the last couple of days.  Her abdomen measured 53.5 cm, the smallest it has been in weeks.  They have changed her cyclosporin from IV to NG (nasogastric) which is a step towards getting ready to be discharged.  The... (More)

In addition to the drain being installed yesterday, yesterday was moving day.  They have all patients move every month to allow for the room to be completely cleaned.  From the few examples I've seen, that generally means moving to a nicer room, since they can pick the day when the... (More)

The last several days have been back and forth. I’ve started several posts in my head, and then they end up changing. The weekend doctors cancelled the stool studies, then the attending on Monday re-ordered them. Jon had some very frustrating conversations with the doctor, but an... (More)

Once again, it was good for me to visit home. This time, I brought Joy back with me. We left later than I meant to, for various reasons (one being the second batch of Victory tshirts came in!) so we had a bit more traffic in Boston than I have yet driven in. It was stressful for Joy, I think,... (More)

Grace had a great day today. She went out for a walk, wasn't even too upset when Heather left for Hillsboro, waved at everyone as we walked down the hallway.  (She was especially adorable today because she brought a toy vacuum cleaner instead of her normal shopping cart, which is useful for... (More)

I walked home late Monday night, because there was supposed to be this big snowstorm. Jeremiah was already asleep, sprawled all over the bed. In the morning, it was only raining Jeremiah and I had leftover pizza for breakfast, and we walked to the hospital in the rain. The nurses and child... (More)

Day +4 Grace has not thrown up at all today! She even had an episode where she ate too much macaroni at once, and was able to spit it out without actually throwing up. She does have evidence of the mucositis in her intestines, and a little bit in her mouth, but that part is doing pretty... (More)

I woke up at 6AM because it turns out that is when the hospital does weekly generator checks which involves the power going out, which shuts off the ventilation fan briefly and triggers these color changing lights (that we didn't know about previously, see below), and so the nurses run around to... (More)

The last long update ended February 3 in the evening. In the wee hours of February 4 (Sunday) she got a blood transfusion for her hemoglobin level, which was expected. (They’re killing off her bone marrow, so her own body is not making as much blood.) Sunday morning, she got a dressing... (More)

The last post left you with Jon and Grace down in ultrasound. That procedure took two hours. They took hundreds of pictures - exploring all her internal organs. She does have vessel constriction in her liver, wgich is not unexpected with JMML. So since then, she has gotten another prophylactic... (More)

T-minus seven days and counting. Transplant Day is Day 0 and they count all other days from that. Yesterday, I left off while Grace was still sleeping. She woke up slightly grumpy, but soon was fully awake and her normal self. Chemo every six hours, blood draws every half hour (!) plus... (More)

For the most part, these last two days went pretty well.  Grace was a trooper as we navigated the multiple confusing buildings and talked with many providers and was poked and prodded by various specialists. Her audiology appointment went pretty well.  The doctor was impressed with... (More)

The only known curative therapy for JMML is a bone marrow transplant, so we will be going down to the Boston Children's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute . Their team is one of the leading cancer centers for treating JMML. We had our first visit on December 12, and are still processing... (More)

The pathology report indicated no parasites, and no bacterial infection, but confirmed the swollen lymph nodes. The doctor said, “I do not like the look of her paleness, and that spleen is really big. We need to see inside; go downstairs and get to imaging right away.” Grace had an... (More)

(this was written January 2024, referring to Grace's first two years of life) When Grace was about six weeks old, right at the beginning of December 2021 , I noticed that she had “ café au lait spots .” I looked it up on the internet, and discovered that these... (More)