Well we are back at the hospital :(
Saturday we got up early because the boys had an 8am soccer game. Clint wasn't feeling really great but was able to come to the game with us, which was fun because Nate scored a goal! Then we drove the boys up to my mom and dads cabin. We listened to conference up there and then left the boys there to play with cousins and drove home. Clint had been feeling pretty nauseous all day and he was starting to have more frequent diarrhea. He was also still battling with the rash and the fevers. But it was still tolerable.
Then came Sunday...He woke up feeling a little nauseous and wasn't able to eat much breakfast. He didn't feel good all day and just didn't look very good either, plus his diarrhea was really getting bad. Around 3:00 I made him take his temperature again and it had risen clear to 103.9 so I told him that I thought it was time to call the hospital. He did and of course they said come on up. We got to the hospital around 6 and they were at least able to give him something better to help with the nausea. They were also able to get him some fluids and stuff.
The Dr's decided because of the combo of the rash, fevers, diarrhea, and nausea it was time to treat the GVH before it did some serious damage to Clint. It is a fine line because the GVH can kill Clint as fast as the leukemia if they let it get out of control. They also did a colonoscopy and an endoscopy tonight just to make sure there wasn't an infection they were missing. They said both ends looked pretty good, his stomach is irritated inside and his colon looked like it had a moderate case of GVH. They took some biopsies and we should get those results soon. They started steroids today to treat the GVH and it seems like the diarrhea is already slowing down a lot. So hopefully Clint can start feeling better soon. (and hopefully they'll let him start drinking soon. they haven't let him eat or drink anything since we've been here, trying to rest his gut. but he's sooo thirsty)
They also decided to start the steroids because the GVH didn't seem to be causing any GVL(graft vs leukemia). He had blasts in his peripheral blood the last two days (2 on Sunday and 7 today). So it seems we are back to square one. Dr. Hoda came in today and went over our options of what comes next. There is another type of chemo we can try, although they don't think it has much of a chance of working other than to keep the blasts down for a while. There is a drug called sorafenib, it is a flt3 inhibitor (flt3 is the gene mutation Clint's leukemia has which makes it so hard to cure) so this would hopefully keep the leukemia away for a while, but in most cases the leukemia eventually finds a way around the inhibitor. Then there is always the option to do nothing, but right now that is not an option we are considering.
We are at the point again where none of the docs have much hope in anything being curative. But we know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and although we don't know exactly what that plan is, we just have to have faith and trust in Him. I also believe in miracles and see no reason why we can't receive one more. I am extremely grateful for all that I have been blessed with in my life and I am especially grateful for every day that I get to spend together with my amazing husband! And hopefully there will be many, many more days (preferably years:) together on this earth. But no matter what happens, we will have eternity! Love you sweetie!!!