I really was hoping there would be no news to share until the "media fast" was over in March. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Last Thursday was another routine cardiology appointment. On Matthew's echocardiogram it showed that his heart function was down and that his mitral valve regurgitation was worse than a few weeks earlier. Matthew's doctors were thinking that these changes could be attributed to either rejection or a progression of the coronary artery disease. Either way, we needed to do a heart biopsy to figure out what was going on. So, we went in for a biopsy on Friday morning. Matthew did awesome!! We were in and out of the cath lab and same day surgery in a jiffy. The pathologist was in meetings all afternoon so we went home to wait for results. We got word around 7:00 pm that Matthew was indeed in rejection-- dang it!! He's having antibody mediated rejection again (the same kind that caused the coronary artery disease. The same kind that put us in the hospital for 10 days doing plasmapheresis :() We went to the hospital for Matthew to be admitted for a 24 hour treatment of IVIG and a new drug called Bordezomib. He handled all of these IV drugs great and we got home last night.
The good news is that we didn't have to take him off the heart transplant list because he is not having any cellular rejection. More good news is that we are not having to do more plasmapheresis....yet! The bad news is that we get to spend more time on the hematology/ oncology floor to get his "chemotherapy" infusions of three more doses of Bordezomib. Bordezomib is a chemotherapy drug used to treat multiple myeloma. Matthew does not have multiple myeloma, but we are hoping the drug will target his plasma cells and might be helpful in treating Matthew's type of rejection.
We are grateful to be home today! We'll just take one day at a time and pray for control of this rejection episode. Taking a break from movies, games, and tv has been a big blessing in our home. It removes a lot of distractions. Josh, Luke, and Matthew have had a lot of creative play time with one another which I LOVE! We will continue to keep you in the loop.
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Chrissy, I am so sorry to hear this...and will pray that his Bordezomib treatments are a success. Fingers crossed that there won't be more plasmapheresis...after working in dialysis, it makes super happy that sweet Matthew didn't need it this weekend. We love you guys and are ALWAYS thinking of you.
ReplyDeleteMatt and Chrissy just want you to know were thinking a lot about you all. You are constantly in our prayers. We love you all so much. Send our love to Matthew.
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