These past few months we’ve found that it’s really too easy to lose sight of the reality of this disease when things are going well. I suspect it’s due in part to how hard things have been when Zoe had an active disease and in the 2-3 months post-transplant when she was in pain or discomfort often. Once those times pass, all we want to do is forget the bad.

We had a bit of a wake up call these past two weeks. Zoe developed a bit of a rash around her mouth and nose, and at first we were convinced it was a slight food allergy. Even the doctors felt it was nothing to be concerned with (yet). Another week went by, and instead of disappearing, the rash spread slightly and began to make us very nervous. We took Zoe in to her home hospital, Wake Forest, and after some consultation decided to take her straight back to Duke to decide what to do.

At Duke we determined that Zoe does have some slight GVHD, which is very distressing since she hasn’t had any worth noting this entire time. We’ve begun treating it with Prednisone, which is one of the steroids we had hoped never to see again. While on the one hand the steroids saved her life, on the other, all of the worst side-effects Zoe has had to endure are the result of the steroids. Our goal is to nip this and get her back off of it as soon as possible. Zoe is days from crawling we believe, she is crawling a couple steps here and there already, a little more each day, but a return to steroids could change things.

Turn your head for a moment and anything can happen with these two

Zoe is also getting a little Nystantin cream for a couple of spots on her skin, and some Nystantin liquid for her thrush, which is still hanging on and never seems to go completely away.

Zoe’s spirits are very high despite these issues, and she is growing well — she’s up to 67th percentile for height now — so it’s possible the GVHD will only be a minor speed bump in her progress. Having her do so well for so long then have the rashes appear is certainly disconcerting though. Hopefully it’s not a sign of anything major.

We have another milestone visit to Duke coming up, we’ll see how things look then.

Update:

After a few days on the steroids, Zoe’s rash has cleared up nicely. She’s in good spirits and we’re back on track we hope, we’ll know more at our next milestone clinic visit.