December 6th

Hello again. I arrived back in Maryland early this morning and met Auntie Jeanne at the hospital just 30 minutes before she had to leave to go back home. It was so good to see Glenna again - and she actually was happy to see me! Imagine! She's been through a week of hell - depression, sadness, weight gain, whole body rash and itching, mouth sores, vision problems and now, today she woke up and couldn't hear very well. She told the doctor and they sent her down to ENT to have her ears checked. I was very glad to be with her. After an hour of testing, she was told that she had mild to moderate "permanent" hearing loss. Luckily this was not the doctor's evalutation, but that of the technician. She was then sent to the ENT doctor who explained that there was a significant hearing drop since her base line evaluation when she first came. They have seen this happen to several patients on this protocol. But what the doctors did tell us is that she would need to have a procedure done which involved injecting a shot of steroid into each ear drum canal. This would alleviate the swelling caused by the cell treatment. According to her primary doctor, Dr. Mathur, this procedure should work to bring her hearing back to normal levels. If she is still having trouble with her hearing next week, they may have to repeat the procedure, but we're hoping not. Unfortunately, the procedure caused her alot of pain which lasted a long time. Before they inject the steroid, they put a numbing agent onto her ear drum. This caused severe pain which kept getting worse. She wasn't prepared for it and ended up having to take morphine twice before it subsided. Poor thing, she was just beginning to feel a little better, and then had to go through this. Not fair.

But the good news is that all of her counts are beginning to go up. They say that in the next few days she will start to feel a whole lot better. I know she feels like its been forever since she's felt good. The weather here is supposed to warm up, so I'm hoping that she will soon be able to get outside and enjoy some fresh air.

Julia, Glenna got your package from all the kids today at the end of the day and all those adorable notes and drawings really brightened her miserable day. And she (we) really love those individual cookies you sent, Stephanie. All the thoughtful cards and gifts really mean alot. Thanks to all of you out there caring and praying for Glenna. It's working.

Goodbye for now, Love, MK