January 31, 2019. Just about 2 years from diagnosis day and 8 months into relapse treatment things all of a sudden seemed to be moving much faster than we expected. We spoke to the bone marrow transplant (BMT) team at Hopkins and scheduled the admission process for the week of February 18. Though we were glad to be in a position to have BMT, there was a lot of anxiety involved as well. BMT was no walk in the park with its own share of complications and we were looking at at least 4-6 weeks inpatient. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks but we were ready.
February 10, 2019. Ariella performed in 2 groups and her tap solo at the dance competition. She won some awards and even got invited to Nationals. But all that mattered that day was the love and support we all felt.
February 11, 2019. Ariella spent over 5 hours at Hopkins doing various tests. David had his own tests as well since he was going to be the donor. We actually stayed over in the city the night before because they were calling for an ice storm and we wanted to make sure we could get to the hospital. What if we didn’t make it and the BMT was delayed? Would that have changed the outcome? We will never know. After spending the entire day at the hospital Ariella finished the day at physical therapy, from which she graduated after 1 year and 8 months.
February 14, 2019. Ariella’s last day of school. How could we have known it would be her last day of school ever? We also learned that one of Ariella’s tests for pulmonary function was borderline for the transplant. It was only off by 1 percent, she redid the test and was not excluded. But. This one kills me. Because it was her lungs that failed her after the transplant. Maybe she shouldn’t have had the transplant after all. Maybe that was the sign we needed that her lungs would not be able to handle it. What if?
February 16-17, 2019. Ariella spent her last weekend at home for what we thought would be 4-6 weeks and ended up being forever, doing what she loved most, dancing!
February 18, 2019. Admitted to Hopkins for pre-transplant. She had a PICC line placed and that was it for the first day of admission. She had some visitors, silly-stringed a teacher, and kicked the adults out of her room while she hung out with her friends.
February 19-25, 2019. BMT days -7 to -1. Ariella started chemo which didn’t bother her too much that week. She spent time participating in the Mix 106.5 radiothon, wandering the hospital taking pictures, dancing, and playing games with friends. By day -1 Ariella was feeling pretty bad from the chemo and she also had full body radiation. The next day was the big day.
February 26, 2019. Transplant day.