There hasn't been a lot of news from Boston in the last few days. The time immediately after a bone marrow transplant is especially hard; Grace has been suffering and her parents are exhausted.
But today, Day +10, there is some light, and an update. (Heather's version of the story is here.)
This weekend, Grace's oldest brother, Jonathan, came to visit. I know she has been missing him a lot, and have no doubt that his presence was as important in its own way to her healing as the many medications she is receiving.
What's more, he was able to stay with her overnight, and give Heather and Jon some much-needed time together—healing for their own hearts!
It's a good thing Jonathan also plays the guitar, as his French horn playing, though beautiful, might not go over so well in the hospital.
Yesterday, Grace did not throw up at all, seemed to be doing better, and even managed some smiles. Many things are going on in her body, so it's impossible to pin down any single cause for her improvement, but my guess is that one factor was switching out morphine for Tylenol. Faith reacted badly to the morphine they gave her after harvesting her marrow, so it wouldn't surprise me if Grace had similar sensitivities. At any rate, at last word she was doing better without it.
She is still on a continuous morphine drip dose, we just haven't done any extra pushes in a few days.
Thanks for the clarification, Jon. I know Faith's morphine actually hurt going in—maybe being through her central line instead of IV makes a difference?
It still astounds me how free doctors are these days with hard drugs. I'm not suggesting it isn't necessary in her case, but when I merely had a tooth extracted, they tried to give my oxycodone! When I balked, they suggested a stronger than usual, but still over-the-counter, combination of Advil and Tylenol, which worked just fine. Why would they take the risk of something so strong and addictive when it wasn't close to necessary?
