We’re coming up on Day 150 for Jennifer Aparicio and her #JennStrong leukemia journey and every day I get more questions about her prognosis, future and general health. We’re blessed to have so many folks who care so much about my wife.
On June 26th, she underwent a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor. We believe the donor is from Europe.
The last six weeks have been exceedingly difficult for Jenn as she completely restores her immune system, strength, DNA and overall health. It has been an honor to be her caregiver and constant companion through this gruesome yet inspiring adventure to save her life.
The side effects are literally too numerous to recount. Pain, aching, fatigue, bones growing, blood flowing, infections and more than 30 pills per day for all sorts of complications and issues related to her safety. We have spent 134 of the last 143 days in or at the hospital. So far, she’s spent 51 nights as an in-patient.
Everywhere I’ve gone the past few weeks, people ask the same question: “How is our girl doing?”
The answer: better than we could have possibly expected but still far from our eventual destination.
Her weight dipped from 118 pounds to less than 100 at several points but over the past five days she has regained her appetite as she’s been weaned off several of the drugs after Day 30 post-transplant.
The next major event will come the week of Aug. 25th when she undergoes a bone marrow biopsy that will determine whether her body has the new cells or her old, cancerous pathology.
We were told, overall, that there’s a 70% chance that she’ll have the new, safe blood. Her odds are even greater because her match was a “perfect match” – a 10-out-10 with the same B-Positive blood type in her donor’s genetic markers.
With the Baltimore Ravens season coming, we expect that she’ll be able to attend some of the games pending her condition and the weather. Because of her skin, blood and the various antibiotics she needs for her safety, she will not be able to be in direct sunlight for the next 12 months. (So, no Ocean City or beach for us until late 2015. We’re discussing places with cloudy awful weather for vacation destinations but we already go to Cleveland once a year.) That said, there’s a dome in New Orleans and we’re hoping she can make that trip in November with so many WNST fans already signed up on our roadtrip.
Your thoughts, spirit, prayers and kind wishes have been received and are all appreciated. We intend to continue to pay it forward as we swab more donors for the bone marrow registry and spread the word and assist victims of this insidious disease that has caused our lives to come to a complete halt while we battle this cancer along with an amazing team of doctors, nurses and a supportive staff of experts at Johns Hopkins.
Please stay #JennStrong with us as we feel we’re about to enter the red zone and go for the end zone of safety for her in the coming weeks and months. She’s getting better and inches closer to a full recovery every day.
We’ll keep you posted and hope that we get a chance to personally say hello sometime in the fall, perhaps at one of our live radio shows with new wide receiver Steve Smith. We’re be swabbing for There Goes My Hero at every event.
Keep the faith and stay #BmorePositive that she’ll be cured.
Much love…from Nes and #JennStrong
P.S. Her journey is in the video below…
