Good evening everyone, a whole bunch of people are asking whats next for Ada, so will do a bit of a detailed layout of her plan below. If you are not too bothered with whats next and just want the status quo now, skip to the next message👇

Ada has finished the 5 chemo treatment days of cycle 1, we are now in the recovery phase of the cycle, where the patient’s blood counts usually drop, especially the white blood cells, and then slowly start to pick up again. The next chemo cycle can’t start until the blood counts are back up again, so one cycle is usually around 21 days in length. In Ada’s case, they want to push the next one sooner than that, but it depends on her blood count recovery. After cycle 2 of chemo, they will harvest some stem cells to grow and culture for her bone marrow transplants later. After cycle 4 of chemo, we will have a whole bunch of scans again and will then be able to see which areas have responded to treatment and which haven’t. At that point, we will have discussions around surgery to remove the primary mass. After surgery, the transplants are planned, followed by radiation therapy (dependent on the outcome of previous treatments and improvement).

Today we have officially reached a new stage: Neutropenic😯 This means Ada’s white blood cells and her ability to fight infection have plummeted. For anyone who wants to visit, please make sure you are well, use the hand sanitizer on the ward before coming in, and if after your visit you find out you’ve been in contact with anyone with an infectious disease like chickenpox let us know asap.
For the next few days, we have to stay in the hospital until the team is confident she will be ok at home. Part of that is learning about the technical side of caring for her various lines and tubes and wounds, and part of it is watching carefully how she heals because she still has the sternotomy wound that’s healing too. We are making sure to make the most of the “quiet” days, this wild journey has taught us to really enjoy the good in every moment to the full. One great way to do that is to have some good tea… we use our beautiful tea set Sarie and the Van Wyk’s gave us for our wedding at least twice a day❤ Come and join us for a cup if you are nearby, or let’s have one together in spirit if you are not💗