Tiny update from Gib (and medical editor Kristen)

I did have the benefit of a long car drive with our medical editor, Kristen Hege. She basically said that it was good that they managed to diagnose the HSV6 -- it was probably something that Bonnie had colonized but never knew about when she had an active immune system. This definitely wasn't something Bonnie picked up from kids "booting" on her hospital room floor about a week ago.

It's a matter of time to see if there is engraftment that was delayed by the HSV6. If she doesn't show signs of engraftment, then they will likely give Bonnie the third cord-blood donation and look to see if that works. Kristen's recollection is that MN has a 5-10% failure rate for cord-blood transplant, so she is hopeful the first graft will take.

Trying the third cord-blood transplant isn't particularly controversial. No more induction or chemotherapy is required as Bonnie currently has no immune system and, in concept, all of the leukemia cells have already been obliterated. So, doing a second transplant is as straightforward as hooking her up to an I.V. The scary thing is that Bonnie has been more than a month without an immune system -- she is neutropenic -- and this leaves her highly susceptible to ordinary fevers and infections that a normal immune system can handle easily -- but that are dangerous for her. A second transplant would mean more than two months without an immune system, which is scary.

Let's cross our fingers and hope for the stem cell counts to come up.