Today we got our second infusion of GCSF (granulocyte colony-stimluating factor). The purpose of the GCSF is to stimulate the bone marrow to make more neutrophils and other types of white blood cells. The idea is to have Rafi create more stem cells so that we can harvest them and store them as a backup if her body rejects her new stem cells. Because the GCSF will allow her to create more while blood cells, we hope this will help her heal some nagging wounds. Unfortunately, we think she has developed a psuedomonas infection and we hope the infusions will help with that as well. The timing of this infection is just perfect of course. We are now scheduled to be admitted to the hospital on Tuesday (no longer Monday – the apheresis department was a little busy on Monday so we delayed one day) to harvest the stem cells and then receive the first chemotherapy does on Wednesday morning. Needless to say, this would set the treatment back a little. About 15 minutes ago she was running a slight fever (100.3) and we will check it again in a few minutes. She has been running around a lot and we think her body temperature is just a result of that.

We have two friends staying with us for the weekend and Rafi has been happier than I have seen her in awhile. She is constantly referring to Raniya and Julie as “her friends” as she runs around the house. It’s really nice to see her so animated. It was really funny to hear her say this morning as we were getting the GCSF infusion, “what are my friends doing?”. She really is a funny kid.

We had a rough bandage change yesterday. It took longer than normal because we had to photograph all her wounds and do as many swabs as we can. Of course the little one was as defiant as ever and was screaming at the top of her lungs and thrashing about. It could very well have been one of the hardest bandage changes we have done. I just hope I didn’t do more damage to her, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. We’ll certainly see tomorrow afternoon.

Let’s hope Rafi doesn’t have a fever this evening, that she doesn’t have any infections and that tomorrow’s bath and bandage change goes smoothly. Think some positive thoughts for Samantha Sheridan as she is still having a rough time at the moment. She is a great young woman who could use a run of good luck.

Thank you to everyone for all your emails, comments, thoughts and prayers. Jackie and I are both grateful and thankful for all the support. We are a little overwhelmed by the response we’ve gotten so far. Quite frankly it’s a little unbelievable.