February 08, 2006 at 02:36 PM EST

February 08, 2006 at 02:36 PM EST
February 14 Happy Valentines Day to you all. Last night and today have been especially rough for me. Dave and I switched last night and its always hard to come back here after being home for a day or two. Simon had a rough night and is suffering again today with his skin swelling up and red and itching him like crazy. I feared they would delay the transplant again but we are moving forward at this point, no matter what the skin does. Marriana had to come in yesterday for her blood work. At least twelve viles were taken from her to test for everything so she is not infected and can donate to Simon. It was hard on us all. Isabel sat holding her hand while she sat on my lap and let us know how scared she was. It was hard to be strong when she kept saying "mommy no don't let them do that". This is all so heartbreaking and we have a long haul to go. Simon is going to be going through Chemo starting monday for 8-9 days and then Marriana will start her GCFS shots a week from this saturday to stimulate her white cell count so that can be extracted from her the following wed. This is going to be a rough few weeks and we welcome extra prayers to ask that Marriana get through this without too much fear but also that she can be strong and brave and not have any side affects whatsoever. We also ask that you pray for Simon so that he will accept Marrianas cells and show significant signs of improvement in his skin and get a new immune system. Our goal is to be home soon and looking for that 100 day post transplant to celebrate. Thank you for all your support. love tracy and david

Thank you to those of you who have sent messages of hope and prayer back to us. It means so much to have the love and support of our friends, family and extended family we are finding throughout this difficult time. I am glad the care page is helpful.

For an update on Simon as of today...My morning started with physical therapy for little simmy (marriana and Isabel call him that). He did well although his skin is not looking better today and he seems to be in a bit more pain than he has been I pray that it will soon be healed. We are getting mixed reactions from the doctors as to if they think the transplant will help his skin. They say the chemo might help his skin because its purpose is to destroy all of simons cells so he can accept marrianas new cells. With our only option being the transplant we pray for that. Next week will be alot of waiting for Simon to get better while we do blood workup on Marriana and by next Monday the 20th they will be starting Chemotherapy on Simon (as long as he stays stable or better until then, for that we pray)to prep him for the transplant. I will be up here most of the week after going home tonight to spend time with our girls so I will be updating this as things go on.

We thank you all for your support and prayers and keep saying them, they must be heard. All our Love Tracy and David Gutierrez