Airline tickets are booked and we are going to Minnesota....

So first thing this morning, Jaime from the University of Minnesota Hospital called and said we have an appointment scheduled for next Tuesday May 20th at 12:00 p.m. for our Consultation (no this is not for the actual transplant). So the fun began, trying to look at airfare, trying to get things scheduled and trying to get things arranged for the little ones. I am nervous, scared and yet happy things are moving forward. I can not thank people enough for their generosity in helping us to get out to Minnesota this time. The airline tickets alone for this one trip would cost us anywhere from $1,500-$2,000 (depending on the airlines) for the three of us to go out and meet with the bone marrow transplant team. Our long time friend Jeromy Beasley called us as soon as he heard about Ariauna and that we were going to have to go out of state and offered to let us use his sky miles to go to Minnesota. A wonderful co-worker and friend at Jerry's work Cal Condie also offered us his sky miles. I can't thank them both enough for offering this. That is going to save our family thousands of dollars. This is not going to be our only trip to MN, and every little bit of savings for our family is huge in our eyes. My heart is so full every minute of every day for the generous people in our lives. Our family, our friends, our neighbors, our community are all helping so much to make this trial as easy on our family as it can be. As of late this evening our airfare is booked. We will be flying out bright and early Monday morning and will be flying home late afternoon on Wednesday. Hopefully we will get a lot of answers at this appointment. I am scared to leave my little one's at home. I have never, left my kids to go on a trip. Thanks to the family and friends that are helping out with this next step of our journey. We will have a few busy days in MN. Our appointment with the Bone Marrow team will be about 6 hours long. We will meet the Bone Marrow doctor herself for about two hours and then will have appointments with the genetic doctors, social workers, hopefully meet the child life specialist there, tour the facility there, hopefully tour the Ronald McDonald house, and hopefully have Jerry help me find the important things and places I will need while I am there alone for months and months.

We also heard from Primary Children's hospital today about Ariauna's blood counts from last Thursday/Friday. Her Hematocrits were 20.5 and her Hemoglobin was 8.2. It was actually Dr. Eldridge herself that called me today and so I talked to her about her blood dropping so much two weeks ago, when it went from 32.9 down to 8.9. She explained that the message on our machine was actually incorrect. (that's nice....worried all weekend that weekend and freaked out for no reason). The numbers that they mentioned on our answering machine were actually two different numbers. See I am still learning and have lots to still learn about blood and blood levels. The Hematocrits are the larger number and the Hemoglobin is the smaller number. They both have to do with her red blood cells and actually the Hemoglobin is the Hematrocrits divided by three. So her counts had not dropped like they made it sound. Anyway, so I don't confuse all of you, I will try to stick with one number the Hemoglobin which is the one they want her to get below 7 before they transfuse. On May 2nd it was 8.9 and this last Friday it was 8.2, so it had dropped but not a ton. They suspect the way it has been dropping, when they test her this week they figure it will probably be about 7.5. Because we are going to be leaving to go to MN on Monday, they are going to draw her CBC on Wed this week and are pretty much planning to give her a blood transfusion on Thursday or Friday. Even if she is not below a 7 they will most likely transfuse her so that she is strong enough to go on this trip and not be too tired the whole time.

We have lots to do before we go, first thing this morning I need to call and talk to the social worker from Minnesota to see if she can help us get into the Ronald McDonald house while we are there, if not they say they can usually get us a much better deal on our hotel. So I guess I best be getting off the computer and start my list of things to do for the day.  Thank you again for everything that you are all doing to help us. I am still amazed at the love, compassion, and generosity of those around us. I will post again soon!