T2E - D9

Hi Our Dear Family and Friends,

Brian and I were sitting quietly in Trudy's ICU room, mulling over thoughts impossible to verbalize; when as sure as anything, the felt prayers of you and no telling how many others washed over Trudy and us. They had been there all along but I needed the stillness of a moment to experience them. I then thought of how meaningful prayer is to Trudy just now...when sedated, she undoubtedly "hears" on a different level...a deeply spiritual level...the lovely whisper of prayers offered to God on her behalf.

To bring you up to date, Trudy has increasing needs for measures that will support her life. We met with her primary care physician, the Stem Cell Transplant attending physician, and the ICU physician this morning. It was a hard meeting in that these compassionate doctors laid before us the medical issues that Trudy is struggling with. Her organs are in decline. Her lungs are clouded with Pneumonia, her liver functioning is impaired, her heart is working hard and its pressure is elevated; and lastly, her kidneys are limited in the amount of toxins they can eliminate. That being said, today she was intubated (placed on a ventilator), and in all likelihood, tomorrow she will need to have kidney dialysis. These measures are needed to give her body a chance to rest from the overload that has stressed her organs so harshly. The medical goal is to give her bone marrow as much time as is physically possible in order to allow the stem cells that were transplanted into her...to produce white blood cells. One other treatment option is to provide donated white blood cells to her. The challenges of providing the donated WBCs are daunting enough; a person has to pass the prequalification standards (not having had aspirin for 48 hours, no antibiotics for the past 72 hours, and so on). Then the potential donor has to be able to successfully donate platelets (which uses the same basic technique). Then the prospective donor has to fit into a timed rotation with our other donors waiting until it is their turn. Then, the night before the prospects donation, he or she must be given an injection of Neupogin (stimulating their body to produce extra WBCs) within a certain time frame. Lastly, that person must arrive at the appointed time to one location in the MDA complex and successfully donate their WBCs. And all of this must take place here in Houston. Here is a real challenge, the doctors don't know how much help if any these infusions of WBCs will be for Trudy...it's simply doing all that we can to give Trudy every chance we can possibly give her

If you are interested the first step is to call the MDA Blood Donation Center at: 713-792-7777 and get the preliminary details worked out. Call First...Please!

Friends, Trudy is in critical condition. Make no mistake...we are not giving up and we will pray until God alone tells us to stop! So help us pray any time, anywhere, by any means. We pray that the baby stem cells will be divinely stimulated to start producing WBCs. We pray that the supportive measures will give Trudy the needed time for the stem cells to do their job. We pray that the WBC donations will happen right on time and that they will help and not hurt Trudy. More than anything we pray that God will be touched by our prayers and His great heart will be moved to intervene in Trudy's health. Jesus prayed like no person has ever prayed when He utter these prayerful words: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me...nevertheless, not My Will but Your Will be done" (Robert's memory).

Blessings,
Trudy and Robert