Thursday, May 13, 2010

It Takes...

It takes a minute to have a crush on someone...
It takes an hour to like someone...
It takes a day to love someone...
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone...

This hits home to me for several different reasons...two of them are...

One, missing my dad a lot here lately... He's been dead for 17 months now, and at times, I find myself picking the phone up to call him during the day to check on him... Then I realize that when I call the house, the machine will pick up...not him... He was such a strong man... Always busy out in his workshop building something for one of the girls or just tinkering with his tools until he couldn't stand it any longer and have to go inside because he hurt so bad. Damn cancer!

Second, a sweet little angel is in the hospital as I type this fighting for her life. Madi has made such an impact on EVERYONE she comes in contact with! She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4 years old. Two years later, her old brother Austin was her bone marrow donor. The transfusion took, but she now suffers from Graft Verses Host Disease. Madi has one of the worse cases of GVHD. She has not been able to attend school for more than 5 years now...and she is only 11 years old! Her mom is a teacher, so she homeschool Madi. Summer of 2009, Madi was hospitalized for 77 consecutive days! She continues to have problems daily with not being able to swallow, hurting when she moves and so many more things.

GVHD is a common complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in which functional immune cells in the transplanted marrow recognize the recipient as "foreign" and mount an immunologic attack. There are two types of GVHD. The acute or fulminant form of the disease (aGVHD) is normally observed within the first 100 days post-transplant, and is a major challenge to transplants owing to associated morbidity and mortality. The chronic form of the disease (cGVHD) normally occurs after 100 days. The appearance of moderate to severe cases of cGVHD adversely influences long-term survival.

Please take time to pray for this family as they surround her with all the love they can at this time. Please pray that the doctors can get her oxygen levels stabilized and her carbon monoxide levels to where they should be and not "taking over" her body...

1 comment:

The Urban Cowboy said...

That is so sad. Madi and her family will be in my thoughts and prayers.