It's day +20 today.

Day 0 to day +15 has to be the longest 2 weeks of my life. Never have I felt time moved so slowly as that two weeks.

The first week, she was suspected to have mucositis. We couldn't detect any blisters but she suddenly stopped breastfeeding. Only a mother would understand how heartbreaking and worried I was then. Doctor immediately prescribed her Morphine to ensure she is not in pain.

In week 2, on day +10, finally came the good news that the marrow had start engrafting. But our relief and joy was overtaken by news of a serious side effect from the Chemo drug, the veno occlusive disease (VOD). VOD in layman term is the dysfunction of the liver that caused the liver to enlarged and body unable to excrete fluids. Her liver had enlarged from 4cm to 8cm and gained 1kg of weight due to the accumulation of fluids. She was all puffy, the poor dear and had to begiven some drugs to help her pee out the water from her body.

Doctor had to start her on Defibriotide - the expensive drug meant for VOD. Alhamdulillah, with Allah's will, we finally saw the effect from the drug a week later. At day +20, the liver is now at 5cm. Hoping it will shrink further tomorrow.

At times it felt like a scene from House where one symptom after another starts appearing. The comforting thing is that the symptoms are somewhat expected by the doctor hence they are prepared with the necessary interventions, alhamdulillah.

Tomorrow is another milestone for Hana. Tomorrow, the doctor plans to convert all her meds to oral instead of through IV. With that, she will be free to walk around (be carried around the room that is) and no longer be tied to the machine. This is an important step before doctor can finally discharge her from the hospital.

Therein begins a new challenge for us.