Trauma of the Heart

Devastating

Leukemia

Relapse

Why

Vancouver General Hospital

10/26/07 We met with Dr Hogge today and she assured us that New York is the way to go for Renee. They are the only ones that can help with this. They need to work Renee up to prepare for the transplant. No one anywhere has ever done a difficult transplant like this.  It is important that the right initial chemo-therapy is initiated to prevent organ damage.

This is a really difficult circumstance.  She said she had consulted with other key doctors in Vancouver and they were all agreed. Everybody is rooting for Renee.

This is a special circumstance and if we start something in Vancouver we might be sorry later. The doctors in New York know her. Dr Hogge reiterated that she and her colleagues would help the best they can at each step.

Dr O?Reilley has 30 years experience and he is the best there is.

?Renee are you willing to go to New York??, Dr Hogge asked.  Renee finds it very difficult to leave her friends in Vancouver and fly all across the continent for what she knows will be an extremely difficult time. 

Her counts are low - platelets 60 and Neutrophils are at 0.5. That means Renee should wear mask on the plane and in public.

Dr Hogge said she will write a letter to Ministry of Health Monday morning. There should be no problem getting the health care costs covered.  Of course, the travel and living costs are not covered.

It really would be for the best to go to NYC as soon as possible.

She stressed that we need to be careful about fever. Renee might need a platelets transfusion.  She has an appointment on Saturday for further blood counts and a possible infusion.

By Monday evening we should be home in Winnipeg.  By Tuesday they want to see Renee in New York.

It is difficult to express the aguish and distress this causes all of us.  We want to trust that the Almighty knows what?s going on, and that many of His People are interceding for all of our family.

He said:  My grace is sufficient for you.  Is it?

Thank you for your prayers.

Raymond & Martha, Justin, Renee, Alayna, Kara

For more information on this journey check out our blog

During our stay in New York in 2005 Martha took a lot of good pictures.  One of them ended up on the cover of The Living LifeLight.

Dr. Donna Hogge joined the medical staff at Vancouver General Hospital in 1984 and became the Director of the Cell Separator Unit in 1987. She became an Attending Staff on the Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program in 1996 and this has become her exclusive clinical practice.

Dr. Hogge continues to supervise a laboratory at the Terry Fox Laboratory and is especially interested in the behaviour of AML cells and translating this into novel transplant and non-transplant therapies.

http://www.leukemiabmtprogram.com/

Vancouver General Hospital 6th floor 855W 12th

From Our Daily Bread: Hope in God?it?s the only solution for the deep traumas of the heart. ?Bill Crowder

No one is hopeless whose hope is in God.

In Psalm 119:71, David wrote, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes." And Hebrews 12:11 says that chastening "yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness."