Dad"s Update

Hi All
The foliage along the Connecticut River Valley is beautiful this time of year. I say that because We have been getting a lot of viewing making the trip to Dartmouth. Monday Hillary went in for surgery to find out what is causing her breathing problems. They did a wedge surgery with a scope and took out the mystery material from her lung. Luckily they didn't need to spread her ribs. They told us fairly quickly that it did not look like lung cancer as there was not a cellular structure. They took out 3 pieces and tried to grow cultures. The choices are usually bacterial, viral or fungal that is causing what seems to be pneumonia. She had been on a broad spectrum anti- biotic. They told us it is scar tissue. Probably from the stem cell transplant. In the meantime Hillary is still in the Hospital and still having lots of trouble breathing. We don't have a solution or plan of how to proceed. She still has a chest tube in that drains the lung. She is very weak and can hardly move without needing to catch her breathe and take oxygen. It is scary to watch her.
She has now been in and out of the hospital for the last 4 weeks with this condition and nothing is improving. We hope to get a new program as all the heads meet this week. It is not the normal reaction to the bone marrow transplant. But we all have learned Hillary is abnormal. She is far above normal.At least we have ruled out cancer but will the side affect cause as much trouble as the cancer? We will just keep hoping they can fix her lungs.
Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We really don't know where we are headed right now. But if the good lord is willing Hillary will be back on her feet soon.