‘Not Even Close to Being Out of the Woods’
I talked with Dr. Armand this afternoon and told him I needed to report to Lina’s family and friends on how she’s doing.
He said, “Wellll…I’m glad it’s you and not me.”
He said that there has been slight improvements on all fronts: the acute Graft vs Host Disease (aGVHC), her back wound and her mental confusion. But he said overall he wouldn’t want to leave an impression of too much progress – “She’s not even close to being out of the woods.” He said it’s typical behavior for aGVHC to wax and wane.
The aGVHC remains the major problem. Her stomach and intestines are still not working. Her liver is stressed. The steroid treatment for aGVHC usually takes about 2 weeks to work. It’s now 4 weeks since I brought Lina to the Dana-Farber emergency room – and they started the steroids several days later.
If there’s no major improvement soon – they will begin treating her with Ontak – the drug they use on aGVHC patients who fail to respond to steroid treatment.
Chloe, Moriah and I spent Saturday afternoon-Monday afternoon in Boston. Because of Chloe’s graduation this weekend, we’re not sure when we will get back down. We hope some of you will be able to visit and comfort Lina while we can’t. I spoke with her for a few minutes tonight – she said she spent a wonderful afternoon walking around Boston today with my sister-in-law Rita! (Lina’s still under 24/7 guard and not allowed out of bed – and wonderful Rita is in Chicago.)
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