Good Morning,



Thank you Jesus for hearing and answering this prayer.



Gillian Chester is having a bone marrow transplant today at 9:00am and again at 4:00pm MST. She has a rare disease called diamond blackfan anemia. She requires a blood transfusion every 10 days (approx). She finally found a bone marrow donor (exact match) through her aunt (chances of this were enourmous). Please pray for the doctors, parents (dave and margaret), aunt, and others directly involved with this. If this operation is successful Gillian will no longer need drugs, blood transfusions, or chemo therapy. On a personal note i feel like God has answered these parents prayers because of the match with margarets sister (aunt)which was a miracle in itself.



Thank you.



Oliver Schmidt (aka oyster_777)

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How did everything work out?

Good Morning,

Just spoke with Dave (gillians dad) and she is going through a rough time at the moment. The chemo has knocked her blood count down to zero and the anti-rejection drugs shes taking (finished yesterday) are giving her some really bad side effects. Apart from that the doctors say that it takes 14 days for a red blood cell to mature and start doing its thing. So by this friday April 29 ,2005 they hope to see the blood count start to increase. By Monday they should know whether or not the bone marrow transplant from her aunt worked.

Thank you all who prayed to Jesus for this family and the tough time they are going through.

Oliver

It is now May 8th, how is Gillian? Have prayed for her and her family.
Thanks!!

Susan in Colorado

Spoke with Dave (her father) last Thursday. Her blood count is steadly increasing. Everything looks very positive. Dave tells me that by mid May (16 or 23?) they will know if the bone marrow transplant was a success. So far it looks good.

Oliver

praise god

revivalgurl

Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 3:02 PM
Subject: Gillian's Progress.


Dear All,

Just a short note to update you all as to Gillian's progress to date. Since Gillian's bone marrow transplant on Friday 15th. April as a possible cure for Diamond Blackfan Anemia (a bone marrow failure syndrome), Gillian has thankfully began to produce her own red blood cells.

She began producing blood counts approximately ten days ago, and has slowly but surely steadily increased her AGC (Absolute Globulin Count), WBC (White Blood Cell), HGB (Haemoglobin) and PLT (Platelet) counts to date. She did encounter a slight "blip" on Saturday evening when she felt pretty ill and her counts dropped, and we are currently waiting to see if it was a case of GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease) or a bug that she may have picked up.

She has suffered some of the side effects from chemotherapy, radiation and the course of anti-rejection and immune supressant drugs, such as mouth sores and a sore throat. She has also had to be fed through her main line broviac port by TPN (Temporary Pulmonary Nutrition), but has today began to drink and eat a little.

The last few days Gillian has been given "day passes", whereby she is disconnected from all her lines and pumps, and we have been able to bring her home for the day. This has given her a much needed break from her isolation room to interact with her sister and brother and other family members. It is commonly felt that this break away from the hospital expedites the healing process overall, but she has to limit her contact from crowds of people.

Generally, the specialists are pleased with Gillian's progress, and we hope that she continues on her course of recovery. We understand that she could be discharged from hospital in the next week or so, and that she would be required to attend a the Oncology Clinic on a daily basis initially.

Once again, we would like to thank everyone for their support, prayers and thoughts, as this has helped us enormously with regards to coping with everything. Our special thanks to all those people at Stuart Olson who have helped by baking and cooking; and Judy & Lesley who have organised 50/50 draws and bought gifts for Gillian on an ongoing basis, and helped her demeanor no end.

We are of course indebted to Margaret's parents - Don & Mary Marjorie, who have helped us look after Catherine, Rowan and Gillian on a 24/7 schedule for the last six weeks or so. I am attaching a few digital photos recently taken.

Best Wishes.

David Chester, PQS, GSC, LEED.