Today’s visit was mostly positive. Mom’s blood levels are stable, her chemistry looks good and her medications are going to stay the same.

Her chimerism test shows that the donor is 94% of her blood, this is up from last time and is great news.

She’s still dealing with graft vs host which seems to be spreading as a rash. This is a mixed blessing.

It means that the donor’s cells are increasingly present in Mom’s body. But it may also mean Mom needs to go onto steroids to treat the symptoms. Her last round of steroid treatment resulted in a huge setback in her strength and agility.

The doctors are now encouraging Mom to continue to strengthen as much as possible through PT and exercise since steroid treatment may be necessary if the graft vs host doesn’t resolve on its own.

Here’s our lady enjoying her post-doc milkshake

We met with her transplant doctor today via Zoom to review the results of her bone marrow biopsy from 2-weeks ago.

We got positive news!

Mom is in remission.

None of the mutations that were present before the transplant were found in the biopsy. Their testing was very thorough and they couldn’t find anything concerning!

The donor is 82% in her bone marrow. She is 100% donor as far as chromosomes go. So it’s looking good!

They want her to continue physical therapy to build more strength. She’ll also be coming into the Cancer Center, later this week or early next week, to treat her for Epstein Barr virus.

Overall, they’re focused on building her quality of life from here out. She’s got much less to worry about. They’ll start to wean her off the immune suppressant meds in the weeks to come.

It turns out one of her doctors ordered a dramatic increase in one of her meds and that was potentially leading to zero energy for life.

They cut the meds back to a lower dose; two days later Mom was back!!!!!

Improvements

Jennie and I spent the day with Mom yesterday (Wednesday). We went on walks, played cards, and listened to stories about Grandma Tillie and Mom’s childhood. It was a great treat to be with her, she seems sooooo much better.

As I was leaving for the night she asked me to speak with the staff about having her grandkids visit.

The head nurse very quickly indicated that kids weren’t allowed due to the rising rates of COVID and that even regular visits (pointing at me) might be in jeopardy because it seemed like they may be heading towards lockdown.

This morning Laura went to the Rehab to find out more details.

Half of the 2nd floor is quarantined due to active COVID cases and the 3rd floor (where Mom is) has 1 active infection (two doors down from Mom).

This news kicked us into high gear to begin Mom’s discharge. At the same time, Laura noticed that Mom seemed a little sick: she was warm, coughing, more tired than usual, and her eyes seemed a bit glassy.

Mom had been tested for COVID yesterday and had been negative so the Rehab was hesitant to test her again, especially since she didn’t have a fever. Laura worked her persistent magic and made the test happen. Sure enough, Marsha Sue was positive.

For the 2nd time in less than a year Mom has COVID.

WTF! OMG. Can you believe it? Just after she starts to regain her health (again) she’s hit with something new!

Potentially hopeful details:

+ the Rehab doctor has reported that the cases they’re seeing are quick.
Symptoms seem to be their worst on day-one tapering off from there.

+ Mom doesn’t currently have a fever.
She seems to have a mild case.

+ Mom may have antibodies from her first infection back in February.
Just before the transplant Mom’s bloodwork showed natural antibodies.

+ She may also have COVID resistance from her two vaccine doses.

+ She’ll have access to the Rehab’s nurses, doctors, and aids while she’s weathering this.

To mitigate her fall risk, the rehab staff is trying to convince Mom to ask for help when she’s getting up. They are trying to help Mom to build back her strength, but for now she’s in a wheelchair.

She’s in physical therapy twice a day and working to recoup the muscle loss from the steroids, but it’s slow going. Understandably, Mom is frustrated with the pace of her recovery and she seems to be really struggling right now.

As always, physical mail can be sent to Jennie’s:

12-06 Fairhaven Place
Fair lawn NJ 07410

Mom’s also allowed to have visitors at anytime on any day!

She’s in a private room so there is no limit on the number of visitors at a time.

Visiting hours are 24/7, but they recommend visitors come before 8pm for a first visit so they can orient you at the front desk.

She’s at CareOne in Wellington (301 Union St, Hackensack, NJ 07601).

As result, yesterday she and her doctors made the decision for her to move into an assisted living rehab facility. Lala moved Mom into her new digs yesterday and speaking with Mom this morning was like talking to a whole new person.

Her spirits seem to be lifting, she has more energy, and she shared that she feels much more comfortable because the staff and facilities are accommodating.

For the moment, it’s unclear how long Mom will be in assisted living, but while she’s there she will be working with a physical therapist to build strength and to recover from the fracture.

We’ll keep sharing updates here. Our goal in posting to this blog is to reduce the number of “how’s Marsha doing?” texts that Lala and Jennie are getting. We want to help all of us who are distant to stay in the loop so we can all continue to be supportive.

Mom’s blood work showed a high white blood cell count this week. (They spiked to 15.8.) We’re still waiting on more lab results. It could be an infection (with no symptoms) or graph vs host. It could also be a side effect of the steroids Mom’s taking for the graph vs host they found during her recent hospitalization.

Next week we’ll get a clearer picture of what’s going on when we meet with her Cancer and Transplant Doctors.

…meanwhile, Lala continues to leave a trail of ggly eyes whenever she takes Mom to cancer center.

The results from her endoscopy show a low grade “graph vs host” in the upper gi track. The team is able to continue treating this on an outpatient basis.

As long as Mom continues to eat, drink, and move she should continue to improve!

Thank you to everyone who reached out, and thank you to everyone who has been praying and giving to the gofundme. This really does take a village, and the recovery process is a long road which we are taking day by day.

We know there are many of us not able to be with Mom in person that are sending lots of love. A few reminders:

1. Physical mail is great! Mom’s shaking hands are making it very difficult for her to text.
   Marsha Abramson
   c/o Jennie Silverman
   12-06 Fairhaven Place
   Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
2. We’re going to keep updating the blog on a weekly basis.
3. If you reach out to Jennie, Mom, or Laura for updates please know it may take us a while to respond. The caretaking is literally around the clock, 24/7, sometimes we just need a quiet break.

She’s returned to the bone marrow transplant floor with the same staff as last time. Everyone is happy to see her and at least she’s around familiar faces.

The first six weeks after transplant are a roller coaster of ups and downs as Mom’s body adjusts and as she (and her caretaking team) acclimate to new norms of social isolation and germ avoidance.

The cancer team is running a bunch of tests to be sure all is going well. Without a strong immune system, Mom’s body could respond to infection in ways we wouldn’t usually expect.

Mom sounds great this morning. Her spirits are higher than they’ve been in the past few weeks. We’ll post another update when we know more.

Thanks all for the continued love and support.

If you want to send her snail mail, she’d probably love to hear from you (she’s not using the phone very much):

Marsha Abramson
c/o Jennie Silverman
12-06 Fairhaven Place
Fair Lawn, NJ 07410

As result, Mom’s hospital was shorter than we had expected. She returned home in less than three weeks.

Since returning home, Laura and Jennie have become Mom’s round-the-clock caregivers. They’ve learned to administer at home IVs and –through trial and error – how to divvy out the many, many, many medications Mom is taking.

These days Mom is visiting the cancer center 3 times each week, having her blood levels checked and her overall progress monitored.

Today is the 26th day since Mom’s bone marrow transplant. Her blood numbers are up and down, but overall the doctors have been consistently satisfied that Mom is just where she should be at this point in the process.

We’re so grateful for everyone’s support checking in and kicking in via the GoFundMe. Together we are making Mom’s recovery as smooth and healthy as possible. It takes a village!

Soon after she settled in, they connected her to her new BFF, an IV pole that’ll be connected to her for the duration of her 3+ weeks in the hospital. (She named the pole Lola. This way she’s got Lola and Lala keeping her company during her transplant.)

Since being admitted, Mom has received four days of chemo treatments and one day of whole body radiation.

Today, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Mom is receiving her bone marrow transplant.

We all hope and pray that is a blessing and good start to the beginning of a new year, and a new life! Baruch HaShem. 

Mom will be monitored for the next few weeks in the hospital.