Yesterday Jen had a clinic appointment in Columbus. For the last several months, Jen has had low white count,  low platelet counts, and stable but low red blood counts.  The reason for the low counts were not only because of radiation and chemotherapy,  but also medications that are needed to help ward off viruses and her rejecting the bone marrow. 

The low platelets have resulted in many transfusions and the low white counts means she needs injections of neupengen several times a week. The transfusions required many trips to the ER and the clinic. And injections often give her bone pain. This has been very exhausting over the last several weeks on her and on all of us.

Yesterday at her clinic appointment we learned they no longer detect the CMV virus in her and if the blood test yesterday still shows no virus, she will be able to quit taking the medication the lowers those levels.  They also are now in a safe place to have her quit taking one of the meds she needed to keep her fron rejecting the marrow.  Both of these medications are immune suppressents which means they drive down all her counts.  By stopping them, her marrow hopefully will be able to start growing and transfusions and injections can be stopped.  This hopefully will make her start feeling stronger and less tired and fatiqued. 

We also will be able to only go to columbus every two weeks for clinic appointments and have maintenance cbc blood test done in Lima on the off weeks. This gives us more time at home to get stronger. We are thrilled.

Jen’s Survivor party is now a week and a half away. A lot of planning and love has gone into planning this for Jen. And we are looking forward to sharing a day of love and celebration with her. We welcome everyone to join us and give Jen a very special day she will always remember.  She has been through so much in eight months. She faced cancer, pneumonia,  chemo, radiation,  blood clots, and so much more. She has shown us so much strength. And what better way to celebrate than to show her she has been in our thoughts and prayers through it all. 

And finally, today was a difficult day for the Honigford family, especially Jen. Today we put down Jen’s cat of 16 years. Kodak’s health had been failing for some time but Jen couldn’t bring herself to put him down when she was preparing for her transplant.  Today, she braved saying goodbye and cried as he passed. He was buried near her dog Grace back near Randy’s parents old house this evening.