Day 93 post-BMT; Central line removed

Much to her parent's delight--and the doctors' relief--Talitha's counts finally climbed out of the neutropenic danger zone.

Today was day 93 post-BMT (bone marrow transplant). Day 100 is the critical point if the counts don't show signs of recovery.

I'm saying a lot of "thank you" prayers.

The white blood cell count is still low but it climbed from 2,300 on August 11th to 4,500 today. (6,000 is the low end of the reference values.)

The ANC number is looking great!  It was stuck in the 700-900 range ever since Tali left the hospital. Suddenly it decided to join the party and jumped up to 2,900! (1,500 is the low end of the reference values.)

The only problem spot in today's blood tests is the liver readings. They show that Tali is still processing an abnormally large volume of stuff her body is fighting to get rid of. I guess that's understandable given the assault on her system for all the past months. I pray that her liver will be strengthened and enabled to bear the burdens placed in its care.

The hearing test came back with some mixed results. Her right ear has normal hearing now in the low, mid, and high ranges. First time that's been the case in any of her hearing tests.

The left ear is fine in the mid range but is showing issues with the low and high ranges. The type of readings they were getting indicate a strong probability that Tali has fluid in her ear.  Hopefully, the fluid is from an infection and not from permanent damage. She was sneezing quite a bit this morning and had a runny nose so she may have picked up a bug. (She also had a slight fever this afternoon and evening.)

Interesting that she was spared any illness while her infection fighting blood counts were dangerously low. And now that the counts are higher, she's showing some signs of infection. We're so grateful the angels kept the bugs away for so long and that her immune system is finally starting to come back on line.

After Audrey met up with a very sleepy Talitha in the recovery room, she was a little shocked to see no central line apparatus protruding from her little girl. It's just been there so long it became a part of her. And now that part was missing. A very strange sensation.

No mesh top, no cords hanging down, just a little bandage covering a small hole where the tubes had been.

For the first time in a long time, Talitha is sleeping peacefully without bulky baggage tucked in netting around her torso.

Yay!