Day 84

Blood draw at 7:30 this morning went well.

We then went to the bone marrow biopsy and that went well too. Terry has had the right side poked so much that it was pretty painful this time. The nurse said it gets harder each time. The left side was not as painful, but they did have to go in twice for the bone biopsy to be large enough. Happy to be done with that for a year. As the day has gone on, Terry has felt more discomfort on the left side - strange huh!

We got a call from Rachel (our primary provider) informing us of the results of yesterday's scan. The lymph nodes look great - borderline normal. We are happy for that.

But, there is a catch - they found a mass on the adrenal glands and need to know for sure what it is, so we have added an MRI to our Friday schedule.

The liver is acting up some, and they are going to blame it on the Bactrim he has to take. He will stop taking Bactrim and start on Dapsone in it's place to see if that helps.

We also had to add a class to our schedule today, so we got our Long Term Follow Up class today at 1:30, after coming home for lunch and a rest. It was a bit tricky for Terry to sit in those chairs just after having the bone marrow procedure, but he managed well and we learned good things.

We were also rewarded on our way home. We saw some blackberries that we pass by everyday, decided to take a detour and picked a few. We needed to put the berries in something, so we dumped out our medicines (into my shoulder bag) and used that small paper bag to hold the berries. We picked enough to make a pie. It was fun, but we think we just disregarded one rule we just heard for the umpteenth time - stay away from plants and dirt. :) Terry tried to keep a good distance, but he did help pick them.

We will let him rest now, until appointments start again tomorrow at 9:00. Maybe he can enjoy some yummy pie tonight, but I'll have to stop here and hurry to get that done.

Day 83

We heard encouraging words again during our clinic visit today - words like "fantastic" and "couldn't be happier". Blood draw was after our clinic visit so todays labs were results from Friday, not today, but we will post them, because they are the most recent we have:
WBC = 4.80
Hematocrit = 31 %
Platelets = 108 thou
Neutrophils = 2.36

Terry had a CT scan today. We were at the clinic all day, having no lunch until 4:30 this evening because of the fasting for the scan. Luckily our day ended earlier than was planned because there was a patient "no show" before us and they took us in early. Lucky for us!

Tomorrow is a big day with an early (and fasting) blood draw and then a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy.

We'll be back to the clinic Thursday and Friday, but have no results until next week. They gave us a heads up on upcoming events, so we know that we have things scheduled for the 21st, 26th, and 28th. We think the 28th is the day they will remove the Hickman line and give us our "walking papers" if all goes well. We'll see! We might be getting a bit anxious :).

We are letting Terry rest this evening and I am folding and stuffing wedding announcements. You should be getting yours soon. I'm trying to hurry! If you don't get one in a week or so, let me know and I'll make sure I get one to you, and I apologize in advance if that is the case. We look forward to sharing this special occasion with you.

Keep August 10th on your calendar - that's the big wedding and reception day! We are so excited for Skyler and Lisa. If they had known each other forever we'd say that they were childhood sweethearts. What I will claim is that Lisa is exactly what Skyler was looking and waiting for all his years. That's pretty close to being his childhood sweetheart isn't it!?!?!?

Advance Notice:

Day 81 today! About 3 weeks left if all goes well, and we do expect it to go well.
We picked up our itinerary Friday afternoon and learned our schedule for the next week.
There will be blood draws (one even fasting), a visit with the doctors (we get to see the very first doctor that we saw for our consultation earlier this year), CT scan, bone marrow aspirations (both hips and with biopsy), pulmonary function test, and a dental exam. These are all familiar, since he's had each before at least once since we have been here.
We expect some medicine changes, and have already had some. Terry no longer gets IV hydration daily, but does still have the Hickman line (which still gets flushed daily), but it should be removed before we leave if all goes well without the hydration.

Today's clinic visit:

White blood = 3.46
Neutrophils = 1.9
Hematocrit = 31 %
Platelets = 112 thousand

Many numbers are down from last week, but they don't seem to be too concerned. In fact, today they volunteered that we are at the end of our stay and will be getting our work up and visits in preparation to leave. This will start with the bone marrow aspiration next week and continue with a busy schedule full of visits and testing for the next two weeks to help them learn what they need to know and help them decide when we can leave.
We do know that he will have lab work and meet with the oncologist/Dr. Smith weekly for the first month and it will be up to her to decide how often she meets with him after that. We've been told to make our appointment with her for the first week of August.

IT'S GETTING CLOSE!

Weekend Report

We enjoyed having BJo and Anthony with us for the week. It seemed to go by fast.

We picked up Gregory from the airport Saturday and Adena came later that night after Connor got home from basketball camp. We had a nice visit for the weekend, the last one before Gregory and Adena leave for home/California (on the 15th). They have done so much for us and we appreciate their help.

Adena made this cake - isn't it awesome! It tastes good too!

We had fun together as we celebrated the 4th of July. We played, blew bubbles, put a couple puzzles together (one was small), ate, and listened to some conference messages Sunday morning.

We watched the fireworks from our apartment deck. We didn't get to see the low ones, but there were so many high fireworks that we didn't miss much.

The celebrating continued the next morning with Adena's birthday.

They left after lunch and I started cleaning and bottling cherries. We got a couple boxes of cherries from Janet and Harris and Adena brought them and some jars and canning utensils so that we could bottle them here. I didn't want to make that the project of our last morning together so I just kept it all here and did it myself after they left. I only did 14 jars, but I'm going to have to soak my fingers in Clorox for sure.

We ended our busy day with a relaxing visit with Dennis and MaryAnn. It was good to see them again and it added to our desire for our return home, to be closer to family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to Thaoe!
We love you!

Happy Birthday to Adena!
We love you!

Fun Day!

It's a good day, and I want to share a few things:

- I've talked with most of my kids today and even had a birthday wish from Auger :) I heard it! :)

- We had brownies and icecream for breakfast! Keeping up with tradition, with a bit of a twist. We always have cake and icecream for breakfast on our birthdays. But, I chose brownies instead of cake this year.

- Terry and the kids made lunch for us. While slicing strawberries for a salad they found these "lips" and put it on top of my brownie for dessert after lunch. SO CUTE! A kiss for me!

- We heard a knock on the door this afternoon and found it to be an exciting delivery. This is an adorable and delicious birthday gift. Many thanks to the sender!!! (Michael and Lisa Christensen) And thanks to others who have sent birthday wishes.

- We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed some good food (and some good sushi). Here's my fortune: "Love is like paint...it makes things beautiful when you spread it, but it will dry up if you don't use it."

- Now I get to sleep, using one of my new pillow cases that BJo made for my little pillow. She got a sewing machine for her birthday and made me a couple pillow cases. Aren't they cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to me, Elaine!

Did you know?
I'm old! And now I'm even older!