I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.“ Psalm 9:1-2
We received the best news ever this week! It worked!! That’s right, the stem cell transplant worked.
Dave’s stem cells are now 99.9 percent his brother Paul, and that’s huge! Dr. Lopez told us that 99.9 is the highest that she ever sees. And there’s more… there is no detectable leukemia in Dave’s blood. Wow, wow, wow! This is such amazing news. We are incredibly thankful and relieved and hopeful.
There’s still a lot of recovery ahead that requires patience and perseverance. We have to be really careful with Dave’s brand new immune system. And graft-versus-host-disease is still something to deal with. But we have achieved a very important milestone in our process, and we couldn’t be more grateful to God and to all of you for your prayers and encouragement.
Donor Paul’s response: "Oh, my God! That is AMAZING!!!!! I’m crying in my office.” And then he made sure Dave knew he will now be a Steeler’s fan. We’ll see how that goes!
This week we also had a Pomona Valley Hospital ER visit because of a persistent headache. A 43-day-old stem cell transplant patient has a headache and they have to rule out brain bleeds and serious things like that. Crazy. We found out how to get instant care at the ER… Walk in with a face mask on and tell them you had a stem cell transplant a month ago. We saw a doctor in minutes! That was pretty cool. After the uneventful CT scan that showed no problems, the ER doctor reminded us that he was the doctor who cared for us on that fateful day last November when we arrived at the ER with Dave in such terrible pain. He may have actually been the first doctor to say that he seriously suspected the possibility of a leukemia diagnosis. It was really great to tell that doctor a little about our journey in the last six months, and especially about our 99.9 news. He loved hearing that follow-up; something he seldom hears in his line of work.
We are excited to share our 99.9 percent news with you. And we hope you will keep praying for Dave as he continues to heal and gain strength.
We are celebrating,
The Stoeckleins