We are home........the power of prayer is awesome!!!

We are home already!!  That's right, in and out of clinic in one day, and we don't have to stay in Salt Lake or anything.  One thing that I know for sure after clinic today is that all of your fasting and prayers for Abby truly worked!  The power of prayer is awesome.  For the first time in 6 weeks, her white blood count came up, almost to normal!  All of the tests from the GI surgery last week came back negative, and we don't think there is any change in the rejection level, but that's hard to tell from just an echo.  Abby still doesn't feel great, I'm still thinking, and always have, that it's just how her body is handling the cmv..  We will get her results from this week's cmv test tomorrow.  They don't consider the virus as being gone until results from 3 tests in a row come back "clean."  We've only had one.  The transplant team also told me not to be surprised if the number of copies increases again.  This is just a virus that takes a long time to go away in immuno-suppressed kids.  Abby's feeling a little better, but not really.  She still has the same symptoms.  But, at least we now know that there isn't something extremely serious going on.  The one thing that I still worry about is her rejection.  It's hard to tell if it's improving or not, and I don't feel like we are really treating it. The only thing we've done is increase her anti-rejection meds back to the level it was before the cmv took over.  The transplant team thinks that this will be enough to clear it up.  I completely trust them with Abby's care, I know that they will do what's best for Abby.  They are going to keep close tabs on her for the next little while, we have to go back for clinic again on May 14th, to make sure that things still look good.  I have to watch for any changes as well.  We will schedule her annual cath/biopsy sometime in June.  We will have to wait for then to do another biopsy, hopefully I won't feel worried that whole time.  I do feel better about clinic today then I've felt in a long time, it wasn't just all bad news.

As for Abby and I, we are emotionally beat up.  If you see us and talk to us, be nice because tears are just on the surface, it doesn't take a lot to get them started in either of us.  It's been a roller coaster month and we're both tired, emotionally and physically.  We need some home time.  Britt and Brock need us to be home too.  It's time to recover a little.  Now that I've had a chance to think about it a little bit, I'm totally bummed about cancelling our cruise.  Things were so crazy last week, that I didn't even have the change to feel bad, but I do now.....we needed that trip!!  But, I know that we will have more trips in our future.  Everyone wants to know if we cancelled it or just postponed it.  For now, it's been cancelled.  Abby has decided that she doesn't want to get excited about another trip to have to cancel again, so she's thinking of doing something else, but she doesn't know what yet.  We've got time to think about that still.

I have to give a big thanks to Joyce Epperson and the Northern Utah Mustang Organization.  This past weekend they hosted a national car show here in St. George and had a raffle and some events that they donated to Abby.  We feel honored that she was chosen for this.  We were able to attend the raffle at Tuacahn on Saturday-what a fun and caring group of people.  They genuinely cared about Abby and were extremely giving, we are grateful.  You better keep in touch Joyce, I consider you a friend now :)  After the raffle, we were lucky enough to attend the Martina Mcbride concert, and Abby and I got to meet her and have pictures and autographs too!  What a great night, a much needed night for the Doman family!  I was trying to think back to the last time we had done something really fun like that together, and it had been a long time, so long that I couldn't even remember when it was!  We spent much of it laughing and just enjoying each other.  Thank you again everyone that was involved in the car show, like I said, we felt honored and we are extremely grateful.

We are also so grateful for all of you.  Thank you to our ward and the rest of you that did a fast for Abby yesterday, hearing all of the prayers for her was very humbling. I know you are constantly praying and thinking about her, just know that it makes a difference.  I also need to thank all of you that left messages on the blog or on facebook last week, or those of you that texted and emailed.  Hearing the difference we've made to you makes me remember that there's good coming from all of this, it makes it easier to handle.  Those comments mean a lot to me, I do take them to heart.  I appreciate your comments and support more than you will ever know.  Thank you for the people that have sent cards, flowers, blankets (Janice), gift cards (Patti and Wayne), etc.  Wow, we feel loved.  If you've sent something, and I haven't sent a thank you card, I'm sorry, things have been a little crazy around here and I'm just trying to keep up.  

Hopefully the next 2 weeks  will be peaceful, yet busy.  Abby doesn't even need a blood draw until next Monday!  It's time to recover. We love you.

Abby and her transplant friend Miabella!

A letter that Abby's friends brought to her right when we got home last week!  She loved it!

Letters from the girls!

We loved getting these flowers, they're beautiful and they brightened up everything!

Abby at the Mustang Car Show at Tuacahn

VIP backstage passes for Abby and I :)

The Doman crew having some fun after the raffle!

Just waiting for the concert to start

Sweet seats!  We loved the concert!

Abby, me, and our new friend Martina McBride ;)