Tag Archives: GVHD

Finally an answer (maybe) – med update

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Nearly five months after Stem cell Transplant: Now that I’ve lost 30 pounds to reach my junior high school weight, they’ve diagnosed me with Failure to Thrive and I’ll be starting on a double steroid regime. Their primary suspect is GVHD (graft versus host disease). To be sure they were going to have me swallow a camera-pill that takes pictures all the way down the GI tract. (Isn’t that wild?!) But whatever they found, I would have to do the steroids anyway, so we decided to go the steroid route. That means going back to blood sugar readings twice a day. But hopefully we’ll skip another round of temporary diabetes. I’ve not been happy with the side effects to steroids so far, but if it allows me to eat I will have more energy. Blood counts are all up if not normal. So if we can resolve the nutrition problem, all should be well…or at least better!

Thanks to God for His sustaining power and for the medical solutions He grants. Thanks to everyone for ongoing prayers.

Medical Update: Graft Versus Host Disease

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Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) has now settled in. This disease is common to post transplant patients and can occur at any time and range in severity from mild to life threatening. Certainly from a medical diagnosis viewpoint my current situation is mild, though each new symptom chips away at quality of life.

GVHD occurs when the graft, my donor cells which now comprise all of my blood and bone marrow, interprets my old DNA (my tissue and organs) as a threat and attacks it. Doctor’s prescribe medicine to keep GVHD at bay and they have now doubled the dose of those meds and given me a steroid cream to help with the maddening nighttime itching. (THAT has been a relief.) As with everything in this journey, the medications come with undesired side effects.

This is not unlike the “graft versus host” and “host versus graft” condition we all face spiritually. We are the host and whatever spirit we let enter and influence our lives becomes the graft. When we let worldly spirits (greed, bitterness, selfishness, laziness, divisiveness, pride, etc) guide us, they come to battle with our sense of right. We have little if any power to fight this battle on our own. When we invite the Spirit of God to control us, we are soon convicted of our ego-centric ways of thinking and behaving and the battle is on to grow a healthy heart and peaceful and loving life. In this case, it is Host Versus Graft Disease that should concern us, and the question is whether we will accept and use the power given to us to live victoriously through the battle.

Spiritually, God allows me the choice to accept or reject Him in hundreds of daily decisions I make, and because I am quite an imperfect host, I am aware of this truth. The difference between these two is that Jesus doesn’t reject me. His love and power is offered freely to me. How do we fight Host Versus Graft Disease? It comes only from humbly submitting to the love and convicting power of Jesus; only from doing what Jesus said: deny self and follow me. If we don’t, dare we call ourselves Christian?