GVH

So, the newest acronym to my vocabulary is GVH, otherwise known as Graft Vs. Host disease. Brandy's the graft, mom's the host, and vs. is pretty self explanatory. We just met the GVH doctor (I'm back in PA for another week in case you missed that minor detail) and he explained that 30-40% of child to parent donations show GVH, and that only 1 in 5 of them even end up in major complications. So that's useful to know. And, research on acute leukemia has shown that GVH can actually be a good thing because they have found a higher success rate for transplants that show mild GVH for some period of time. He said the problem is that they don't really know the time period it's necessary, so they let GVH run it's course as long as it's not becoming unbearable and not getting worse. In case you can't tell I'm a big fan of the GVH doctor, all that information I received directly from him 20 minutes ago - no internet searching needed after someone who is so thorough.

Well, mom is back. She hasn't stopped talking since we arrived, no joke - the only reason I can write this long is because the nurse is in here and taking the brunt of the discussion :) Comparatively speaking she would have days that she was more tired and less talkative while we were up here before, but being here now is reminding me that even the good days then were calm compared to the norm. Wow.