Results, part I

Maggie saw Dr. Kahn, her gastroenterologist today and got most of her test results from her procedures last week.  Dr. Kahn was very happy with what she found so far:  the biopsies have come back negative (ruling out bacterial infections, viral infections, parasites, celiac disease, and probably a lot of things that we don't want to know that they were testing for).  They don't yet have her enzyme level results yet, so we'll find those out next week.  Thus, they don't know if she's able to digest lactose, fructose, sucrose, etc.  At this point, Dr. Kahn is suspecting that this is what will come back with a more significant finding.  And she's happy about that.  

Given that Maggie's diet during the diarrhea consisted of breastmilk, whole milk, ice cream, whipped cream, ranch dressing, and little else....unsuspected lactose intolerance would be quite problematic for her.  If this is what the problem is, Dr. Kahn expects that it would be temporary.  The enzymes could be out of balance due to a bug that she might have had in Jan./Feb. when this all started, plus chemo and other medication related causes.  Maggie had a stretch this morning when her stools were pretty liquidy again, so we were a bit worried about the new diet allowances....but we seem to be doing better this evening.  Plus, Dr. Kahn liked the looks of one of Maggie's dirty diapers.  

Sigh.

Nowhere close to out of the woods, but no bad news is good news.

We remarked in the appointment that our obsession with GI issues gave us a bit of a distraction from relapse/cancer worries (though it wasn't much of a relief).  I hope we continue to have good reason to trust that her Leukemia is gone forever.  It's hard to explain the anxiety that comes with all of this.  Though we often hear sentiments suggesting that optimism is the right approach, it is so hard.

Anyways, Maggie is asleep, is 40% through her doses of steroids for this week, and we are exhausted.  We have been very, very fortunate to have lots of help this week (and other weeks) from our family and are continuing to receive generous and kind letters and gifts.  Thanks to all.

I can't stress enough that we still need your prayers for Maggie, for things to settle down, and most importantly for the leukemia to never come back.  

Thanks.