Thanks for all the supportive replies.

More good news:  Marie was discharged today!  After 36 days in the hospital, she was really climbing the walls.  And to add insult to injury, she was restricted to her room for the past four days.  After the excitement with her pericarditis, the cardiology team wanted to test for a few viruses, the results of which still aren't back.  Apparently hospital policy is that if you are being tested for a virus which can be spread by droplets, until the results are in you are restricted to your room and all caregivers have to gown, glove and put on masks with shields.  So that put the kabosh on her plans for Halloween treats for the kiddies on the peds unit; no one wanted to get treats from the patient with droplet precautions (and I don't think it would be allowed)!  At least they gave her a pass to come home for a few hours on the weekend, where we didn't have to follow droplet precautions and she could enjoy the kiddies that trick-or-treated at our house.

One more tidbit about the cardiology team.  When the cardiology resident first came to examine her, he laid out all of the possibilities--many of which were terrifying.  We quickly learned when the attending came by later that Marie's case was likely to be not terribly serious.  So the next time the cardiology resident came by and told Marie that an additional test showed her heart was failing, we knew not to believe him.  He seemed mildly surprised that we had no questions for him after he delivered this devastating news.  As we expected, the cardiology attending told her that the test was fine, she simply had pericarditis which would resolve on its own.  Marie then asked about the resident's claim that she was heading towards heart failure.  The attending was quick to reassure her that wasn't the case.  I hope the resident will learn from this that his job is merely to assess the situation, learn from the attending what this means and not give a premature and false diagnosis to the patients.

Everything has improved since Marie was discharged--she has more energy, pain is better, and she's eating better too.  The mental health aspect of being discharged after so long in the hospital can't be underestimated.

She saw her transplant doctor yesterday.  He is delighted with her response, and they are trying to "activate" the donor for transplant at the end of this month.  What a strange way to say it--sounds like they're "activating" the Stepford donor.  We are so grateful, and hoping the donor will agree to go through with this.  It must be daunting and scary for them, too.

Anticipating transplant is so different this time, what with Marie's weird extramedullary relapse.  All these procedures are geared towards knocking out cells from the bone marrow, but there is little info on disease in other sites.  Since no one usually looks for disease in other organs with AML, one never knows how many patients may have had it and how it responded to chemo.  So it feels as though we're flying a bit blind this time.

We have great confidence in her doctors, and they are working so hard to get Marie the best treatment possible.  I was so impressed yesterday with her doctor's patience with my many questions, and his thoughtful and thorough answers to all.  A big thank you is on its way.

The support from this forum is indispensable and so very much appreciated!

Another piece of good news.  The GI doctor took out the stent in her bile duct and said that the obstruction was gone, and all looked good there!  The stent was 15 cm long (~6 inches) because there was so much obstruction from the leukemia--yikes.  The doctor said that the bad cells had just "melted away".  Even he seemed surprised.  So Marie is stent-free, which also freed her from the stent pain (stent had moved--probably with the reduced obstruction after chemo--and was "poking" her in the side).  Now we're waiting on the results from a more definitive CT scan.

The plan is for transplant within a couple of weeks.  I wish the transplant team would keep us better informed of the progress on that.  Am not bugging them directly because I want Marie to feel in charge of this.  It's so different now that she's 25 and has lived in France for a couple of years.  She seems to want to be in charge more than she did last time (4 years ago), but I'm always in the background ready to step in when she wants me to.  What an incredible gift--due to the kindness of a complete stranger, I've been able to see Marie grow to be such a capable woman.