Bonnie's Homecoming Today!-- from Hilary

As you know, Bonnie is coming home Monday and
we (Betsy, Lisa, Charlie and I) want her house to look
extremely FESTIVE, so we have asked everyone to:

1. Stop by her house at 334 Pepper Ave to sign a big
poster on her garage(Betsy put this up today-Sunday)

2. Write with chalk on her driveway(Betsy put out the
chalk Sunday)

3. Charlie came up with a great idea to print photos
and adjectives that describe this amazing woman and
hang them from colorful ribbons in her trees- strong,
dedicated, tenacity, love, stud, friendship, family,
mother, etc.

4. Bring balloons to decorate the house

Please feel free to forward around to anyone. I talked
to her today and she was in the middle of packing--and
sounded thrilled to be coming home tomorrow!

Thanks again-
Hilary

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Kelsey, Britney, and I flew from San Francisco yesterday to Providence, RI, to visit my parents in Mystic, CT. Kristen flew ahead on her own so she could do a site visit in Stamford, CT.

While we were on layover in Chicago Mike called me from Minneapolis to let me know that they had managed to schedule a private jet ride home for Bonnie this coming Monday. He seemed quite excited about the prospect.

I was in the United Food Court and could hardly hear him over the din of the crowd and my two daughters asking, "How L-O-N-G before our next plane takes off?" At the time, a direct flight via private jet sounded pretty good to me.

In fact, Kristen was so enthralled by the concept of Bonnie's private jet trip back to SF that she started thinking about returning to San Francisco by way of MN so she could be Bonnie's private physician. Can any Dads out there tell me how many "points" I accumulate for two trans-continental-solo-dad deliveries while my wife travels via private jet?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Please put out the welcome mat for Bonnie, Mike, Isabel, and Devon on Monday.

Gib

It's Official: Bonnie is coming home! (from Mike)

We've had unofficial word for several days now that Bonnie has met all the criteria for release from Univ. of Minnesota and transfer back to the care of UCSF. And further that her anticipated Dec. 15 release would be moved up to early the week of Nov,. 28, just after Thanksgiving. However, the powers that be wanted to go through the formality of developing a plan/protocol for Bonnie's treatment going forward.

We got that formal approval (and future plan) at mid-day today, Tuesday, moments after Isabel, Devon and I landed in Minneapolis. She is literally free to go home whenever she is ready at this point. She'll wrap up with some previously scheduled clinic appointments this week and will likely come home on Monday or Tuesday next week, depending on what we can come up with for private flights on this short notice.

Needless to say, the folks on staff at U of MN are still scratching their heads with respect to their miracle patient. World's record for number of days from transplant to engraftment, and one of the longest stays for their transplant program. However, she leaves with very strong numbers, including strong (and accelerating) cellularity -- a concept that Gib and Kristen have just clarified for us in the preceding Blog entry, zero signs of any Leukemia, white blood cell counts at a level consistent with those of a healthy adult, and increasing production of red blood cells and platelets.

All evidence at present, knock on wood, is that this thing has really worked.

Long road ahead, lots more work, lots more milestones, but we have just passed perhaps the most significant couple of hurdles of all -- engraftment, and discharge from U of MN.

Bonnie looks great. Her hair is coming in much more now. And, while she is still somewhat weak physically, she is very much trending upward on that front, and is on an emotional high with the great news. We all are.

It is a Happy Thanksgiving, indeed. And we have a lot to be grateful for.

Hope that this note finds family and friends well, and that you all enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.

...More to follow.

Mike

Cellularity demystified

Hi:

Had one of my jogs with Kristen and managed to talk about cellularity. While it's exciting to know that Bonnie's cellularity has grown from 5 to 25%, occasionally I find it helpful to have a vague clue about what this means.

Well, it turns out the "normal" cellularity of bone marrow is about 50%, which means that 50% of your bone marrow is stem cells, and the remaining 50% is fat. So, Bonnie is well on her way towards a normal count of 50% which is encouraging. As for the rest of us, as we age, our cellularity is decreasing due to the normal processes of age -- we'll criss-cross with Bonnie in a matter of years!

Bonnie Update from Michelle

I just spoke to a very strong-sounding Bonnie. She got the preliminary results of her Bone Marrow Biopsy. There are no leukemia cells (woo-hoo!) and there is 15-20% cellularity. There was 5-10% cellularity before so the cells are still cooking and doing what they are supposed to do.

She is definitely feeling stronger; on Tuesday night I got a message on my machine from Bonnie with the details of her trip to the Minneapolis Anthropolgie. She was too tired to shop a few weeks ago but she is clearly starting to regain some strength and was able to fulfill her need to shop. Thatta girl.

Michelle

Bonnie meets new godson!

Here is an update from Cindy Lefkoff, who recently visited Bonnie:

I second Alicia in saying that Bonnie is a true hero and fighter. My visit overlapped with Alicia's by a few hours, so we all got to revel in Bonnie's good news. I spent the weekend with Bonnie, and we had a fabulous time. She is just unbelievable. Regardless of the fact that she is quite weak and tired, she insisted upon taking myself and her Aunt Hope out shopping and to lunch. She is just too much. No stopping a girl on a shopping mission!

The primary reason for my visit was so that Bonnie could meet her new godson, Asher. He is 12 weeks old, and he took his first plane flight from Boulder to Minneapolis to see Bonnie. I was hoping to get a picture of the two of them together, but that didn't quite happen. Since Asher has not yet had all of his immunizations, we were hesitant to have her hold him too much, for both of their sakes. Regardless, here is a picture of him:



We are hoping to get to see her again soon, and we are hoping that trip will be to San Francisco!

Best regards to Bonnie's Friends and Family. You are a wonderful bunch!

Cindy Lefkoff

Good news for Bonnie...

Here is an update from Alicia Sanguinetti:

I just got back from visiting Bonnie last night… I have some GREAT news: Bonnie DOES NOT HAVE GVHD!!!! Thank God!!!! No steroids for our girl!!!!!

As many of you know, Bonnie has been very nauseous and has been losing weight these past few weeks. They did two scopes on her on Wednesday to test her for GVHD (Graph vs. Host Disease) and thankfully she does not have it. I was lucky enough to be there when her wonderful Nurse Practicioner told her that she is virus-free and doing well.

Bonnie had been on quite a bit of magnesium and they are attributing her nausea, etc. to that… so, they lowered her dose and are giving it to her through an IV ( as opposed to orally) and she is feeling so much better. She actually didn’t lose any weight in the past few days… things are really looking up.

They are planning her exit strategy and will know more in the coming weeks. Hopefully, we can get our girl home sometime in the first few weeks of December. She will have to continue with clinic, etc at the hospital, but at least she will be HOME with her family and friends.

I had the best two days with Bonnie. We talked for hours upon hours… we rested together, shopped and even had lunch out in a little café. She has such a great attitude… She is so determined…. She is still the hero of all heroes… She is such a fighter.

She loves getting calls and letters… keep it coming……You can email her by clicking here or you can send a letter or package to her apartment at this address:

Bonnie Tonneson
2900 Thomas Ave. S. #2121
Minneapolis, MN 55416

Love, Alicia Sanguinetti

11 Thousand Visits

Nice that Bonnie is going strong -- and so are her friends. YOU are the eleven thousandth visitor. That's right:



11 thousand visits-- thanks for dropping by!

Bonnie update: from Michelle E.

I just read Stacy's note on the blog and thought I would add some details. Basically, they are going to send a tube down Bonnie's throat to take a swab of her
stomach and colon to see if she has chronic Graft-vs-host disease (the medical term for this went in one ear and out the other as Bonnie said it). If she does have chronic GVH, it is treatable but she will be on prednasone for 6 months and prednasone is a drug that Bonnie simply despises. They are worried because of her nausea and because she hasn't been able to keep weight on since she was released from the hospital. However, these symptoms could also be caused by the massive doses of magnesium that Bonnie has been taking. Yesterday she took a third of what
she had been taking and she felt much better. So, it is another situation of wait and see. Also, if they can figure out what exactly is going on with her and then get it all under control, they may send her home after Thanksgiving. She would spend a huge part of every day at UCSF clinic but at least she would be home! They just need to understand exactly what is going on and then UCSF can administer all the proper meds.

Michelle

Alicia's Story

Not sure if folks have been following this story, but yesterday the Chronicle published the next chapter in Alicia's Story. You can click here to read it.

Let me know if you have been following the story, or if you have any Bonnie updates by clicking here to send me an email.

Bonnie Update:From Stacey Keare

Hi Gib . . As it's been a bit since the last posting I'll relay a little info. I managed to have a somewhat lengthy conversation with bonnie on Sunday as her kids were still asleep and mine were out getting doughnuts with dad. She is doing well but has a new complaint which is pretty severe nausea which may be caused by graft vs. host, and may be chronic (let's hope not.) She does NOT have a biopsy coming up this week. She said she thought she had read that she had one, but when she re-read the letter it said she merely has an appointment on the 22nd, or something like that. Maybe a little wishful thinking?? Anyway, she is continuing to tackle issue after issue with grace and humor and certainly enjoying time with the girls and Mike outside the hospital. Continues to be freezing . . And can't wait to come home!

Stacey Keare

Tiny update from Michelle

Bonnie had a great visit with Mike, Isabel and Devon. They leff today and she was completely exhausted. Just to keep you in the loop, her Bone Marrow Biopsy is scheduled for November 16, not November 11.

Michelle

Racky's 2005 Pumpkin-Carving Party

 

Here is the 2005 version of Michael and the girls at Ricky and Racky Friedman's Pumpkin Carving contest.