Emerald Hope

day +40 - We got wonderful news today. First of all, Jen's bone marrow shows that the cells are making a nice little home for themselves in her bones. She will have a MRI tomorrow to see how they look in other areas of her body. Secondly, the "team" has decided to start tapering the steroids and that's one of the first steps towards getting out of Seattle and back home. We were warned early on that the tapering is very gradual cause they don't want to undo any of the good the steroids have done. But, her liver enzymes are still going down on a daily basis and all her tests are looking good so the tapering will begin tomorrow. You must remember that they tried to taper the Prednisone before and Jen started to have trouble again so she will be watched carefully so they can intercede if any signs of decline appear. But, they are very hopeful that she's ready for tapering and we are very hopeful too that this time will be the beginning of getting her off these double edged drugs. Jen is slowly getting her appetite back too though her weight has not increased - mine probably has though as she seems to be on an ice cream kick and who can resist ice cream! Brings out the kid in all of us.

So, I'll go for now and try to find where Jen hid the Ben and Jerry's. Until next time, keep good thoughts coming our way.

jo/mom/granny