Remission

Its been 6 months and 8 days since our lives were turned upside-down with the big "L" word. You always think that nothing like that could ever happen to your family but when it does its devestating. The Lord works in mysterious ways and I know that this trial in our lives was there to strengthen our family. Moms progress has been very steady and good over the last couple of months. She has traveled this road with such grace and has shown a strength beyond anything I could have imagined her capable of, comforting us when we broke down. But all of that aside today was a GREAT day, Kim traveled to Salt Lake with Mom and Dad today to her last Dr. appointment and it could not have gone better. The Dr. removed her central line and now she only has to wear her mask in large crowds or where there are sick people. So she will still use it for the next little while during cold and flu season. During her consult the Dr. told them that she has all of the best possible set of circumstances in her favor. She is officially in remission and she has the correct combination of mutated chromosomes that will give her a 55% chance of being CURED!!! The likelyhood of a relapse of the cancer is low but if it were to occour it would happen in the first 18 months to 2 years. If after 5 years she still shows no signs of any cancer then they will consider her cured. So for now she will fall into a routine of monthly bloodwork and evey 3 months she will have a bone marrow tap and they will just keep monitoring her. So keep her in your prayers and once again thanks to all who have prayed, visited, called, emailed, facebooked, and everything else you have done. Much love to all. I love you Mommy!

Still swollen

Well things are not going as swimmingly as I previously reported. The swelling has not gone down as much as I had thought. Dad says that Mom had been really sick and tired for those first few days in the hospital. She also has a blood clot in her neck area from the problem with the central line that they moved. so they are giving her even more yucky medicines to help with those issues. She finally felt good enough to get up and walk some on Sunday morning, but still isn't feeling really good.

Round 4

Well after several days of being home, since June 12, Mom went back to the hospital once again on Wednesday June 23rd for another round of Chemo. This time there was a bit of a "hang up". Mom had an infection in the area of her central line. They found that the wire inside the line had slipped out of place and I think they said it was twisted. So they tried an antibiotic and it gave her an allergic reaction. So they had tTo remove her central line from its location on the right and move it to the left side. hey also gave her a different antibiotic and within hours the swelling in her chest and neck had gone down significantly. So they were able to finally start this round of Chemo on Friday night. So please keep her in your prayers as I can assure you that they are working. Love to all!

Bald is beautiful

Well today was the big day Mom finally decided to have Whitney shave her hair off! I think she looks great and its just another step in the right direction on her path to wellness. She did not want to look at herself for a little while and finnaly Izzy took her by the hand and took her to the bathroom to take a peek. Like I say BALD IS BEAUTIFUL!!! Wear it proud mama!! LOVE YOU!!!

Build-up

So Mom has been in the hospital for "blood building" since Thursday. So we are waiting to see when they will let her go home again until the next round of Chemo. She looks great and still has some hair on her little round head. ;-) It is really good to see her and we are excited to be able to take her home sometime during the week for a few days. Timing was good for her to be able to attend grandson Garrett's high school graduation, and with any luck will be home to celebrate Isabel's 14th and Hyatt's 13th birthdays this weekend! Thank you to all who continue to send well wishes and prayers. Love to all!

Round 3

Well it has been several days since I last updated and things have continued to go very well. Monday Mom checked back into the hospital for round 3 of the consolidation treatments. This round has gone just about as well as the others. Very little adverse reaction only one small bout of nausea and upset stomach. My mom is the strongest most amazing woman that I know. She should be out by the end of the weekend and hopefully she sill do as well as the last time when she was out for about 2 weeks straight. Thank you to those of you that continue to call and visit it is truly appreciated. Love to all.

Home again

Mom got her last treatment of chemo for this round on Saturday evening and Sunday morning she got to go home again. She will be home again for a few days until they check her blood on Thursday and determine if she will need to be admitted or will be able to stay home for a few more days. It will all depend on the levels of platelets and neutraphils. In the meantime she is still feeling great and trying to be semi-normal while at home. Love to all.

Round Two

Well Mom checked into the hospital on Tuesday for round two of her Chemo treatments. These will be a series of three "consolidation" treatments over the next few weeks to finish up the overall projected long term care for her. She took the first of two "bags" of chemo Tuesday midday and the second this morning. I talked to her today and once again she is in great spirits and moving along like a trooper. Now she will have a period of 36 hours with no chemo and then another bag will be hung and then she can go home soon after that. This process will repeat an additional three times. She should be in the hospital for about six days each. Once again thank you to everyone family and friends alike for your continued concern and support. You all have made this process so much easier for all of us. Much Love!

Home Sweet Home

Today was the day.... MOM IS HOME!!!!!! This morning did not start off too well because one of the nurses delivered some bad news. She told mom that her Neutraphil levels had dropped and she would not be able to go home today....Well she was wrong and mom was devastated. She actually cried for the first time today. But all was resolved and she would soon be on her way home! She was able to surprise Hyatt and Garrett at the ball park and see them outside of the hospital in over a month. She still has about a third the volume of her hair and Kim says she feels good and looks good. SO GLAD TO HAVE HER HOME!!!!! She is very happy to be in her own bed tonight.

Almost home

Well there is more and more good news to report...Mom has been increasing her platelet levels on her own and they are now up to 251,000. She is still holding steady at 100 on her Neutraphil level but her body is still rebuilding itself. It looks like she will be heading home this weekend for a little while and get some much needed rest in her own bed. Thank you to all who have been visiting and keeping Mom in your prayers and thoughts.

Better each day

Well Mom, Dad and Blake had a consultation with the Dr. today and they tell them that everything is going along well and mom can go home soon. The platelet levels are holding and climbing on their own now and they are now waiting for the "Neutraphil" cells to kick in so that she can go home for a while. The Neutraphil cells are the ones that fight infection and she needs those before they will let her out. They say that once the start they come back relatively quickly. Once she is home they will schedule 3 to 4 additional chemo treatments of about 6 days each in the hospital. Mom's Dr. has given them a really good prognosis for a good quality of life for many years. With the subsequent treatments they may have even eradicated the Leukemia all together. We will all keep our fingers crossed and keep the prayers coming. On the down side she is starting to lose her hair much more now and Dad says it has thinned out about 50-60%. This is the only emotional part of this whole process that has been difficult for Mom to deal with. But she is a trooper and this too she will overcome. You can email Mom at the hospital buy loggin on to the hospital website at http://www.ldshospital.org/ If you scroll down on the left hand side there is a place to click "email a patient" and it will let you send her a short message. She would love to hear from you. Keep praying and much love to all.

Boring is good

So Mom's Dr. told her today that she is boring! Really nothing new to report which is always a good thing. She and Dad will have a consult on the 12th and they will decide what teh next steps will be...more chemo? going home date? etc... Things are still going along swinmmingly. Mom is just a trooper. And while we are on the subject so are Dad and Kim. Mom has had many visitors in the last few days and I will update the list soon. Keep the prayers and well wishes coming. Mom can recieve emails at the hospital and I will be adding a link soon. (as soon as I can figure it out). Love to all.

Thursday & Friday Updates

Sorry about missing last night. I was already at the hospital when they asked me to spend the night with Auntie Robin so I didn't have my computer. Auntie Robin is doing pretty good. She a a few goods days and I won't say bad days but days where everything does quite go as planned. She is still struggling with maintaining her platelet count and has to have a bag of platelets today. We keep hoping that she will maintain more than the last time. Please keep this thought in your prayers. She had a little bit of a bad night starting with a small bloody nose, but even though her platelet count is low her blood still clotted and it stopped relatively quickly. Then she got up around 2 am and felt a little icky (I think that is the technical term) and spit in a bucket for a little or as she calls it retched. But that passed and finally she got to sleep only to have her IV finish and a loud beeping sound was our wake up call around 3 am. Finally we think we can sleep but were a little more awake than anyone should be at 3 am so we talked for awhile. We get sleepy and then a few hours later a nurse comes in at 7:30 to to stats and stuff. How is anyone supposed to get uninterupted sleep this way. Auntie Robin is doing well though. Her appetite is still small but is getting better. They took her off of the oxygen and she is maintaining her levels really well. The Doctor is pleased with all the progress she is making and is positive with each step toward recovery or remission. Auntie Robin still has not lost her hair but is sporting a really great "Don King" look for anyone visiting. She sends her love to all her friends and family. Keep up the prayers and positive attitudes. They are are received with love in her heart.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Well March is almost done, but here in Utah it sure don't look like spring. It has been snowing all day. It was nice to watch outside Auntie Robin's window. Auntie Robin was pretty tired today. I think all the treatments are catching up with her. Uncle Keith decided that there wasn't enough excitment in their lives and decided to wreck on his 4-wheeler. He is fine just bruised and beaten up. He stayed home today rest after his exciting evening in the emergency room yesterday. Auntie Robin got more platelets and whole blood today to help with her blood chemistry. The Doctors want to do some more rounds of chemo around the 30th day of her treatment and then let her go home for a little while until the next treatment. Hopefully everything will go well. One concern however is that Auntie Robin was running a temperature today of 100 so since her immune system is at its lowest that is being monitored closely. Auntie Robin is still in good spirits but is ready to go home as soon as they let her. We were walking the corridors the other day and she is all gloved and gowned and masked and we walked in the corridor where the elevators were and she said lets make a break for it, but I told her that just like the convicts wear orange coveralls that yellow gown is a dead give away. We told this story to one of the nurses and he said that they have snipers on the roof with tranquilzer darts so don't even try it. Thanks for all the great prayers. Blessings are pouring in with great test results. Auntie Robin sends her love.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Since Keely is in DC till Saturday, Eileen will be filling in for her. We visited with Auntie Robin today and she is feeling much better than yesterday. She ate well and her platelet count has bumped the highest yet at 44000 however it dropped but not as low as yesterday so she is retaining more platelets which is good. The 4th Doctor came in and visited her today and told her that the bone marrow transplant would not be necessary and that some more rounds of chemo would have to happen. Auntie Robin seemed pleased with the news of no bone marrow transplant but if the chemo does not do all it needs to do the bone marrow transplant is still on the table. Auntie Robin remains in great spirits and has told me of her great faith in the Lord to heal her so keep up all the prayers and great thoughts for her. She knows she has a lot of friends and family that are out there with prayers and love for her speedy recovery and health. Keep up all the prayers they are working and Auntie Robin is feeling the positive blessings.

mutation is good

Some interesting news today...Mom's doctor did a chromosome check on her and they were looking at which ones had mutated and which hadn't. The "NPM1" had mutated and was allowing the chemo to work...the "FLT3" had not mutated and that this is the best possible situation for fighting the cancer. There is a 60% chance that there will NOT be a need for a bone marrow transplant. Dr. Ash was really optomistic and quite elated at this development. So in a nutshell things are still looking really good.

We are home now and it was really good to see Mom. She looks and feels great! It almost hard to believe that she is sick. Everything continues to go well and today she received another bag of platelets to continue to raise her levels. A normal healthy persons levels are around 100 thousand to 400 thousand, and Even though she is only at 39 thousand it is a good level for her as they will be rebuilding her body little by little. She had a room full of visitors today many family, friends, and church members continue to visit on a regular basis. It was such a blessing to have Eileen there to stay with Mom so that Dad could be with the rest of us in Elko for Bryce's homecoming. We sure did miss Mom though. Even though she is doing so well please don't forget to keep her in your prayers as we have a long road to haul.

So much talk about platelets

We spent some time at the hospial today visiting with Mom. Kim spent the night with her so Dad could come home to get some much needed rest. Today lots of information was given about platelets and counts and parameters and all kinds of technical jargon, but the bottom line is that the "matched" platelets are holding at an acceptable level. Yesterday Mom's sister Karen and her neice Eileen showed up unexpectedly and will be here for a few days. This was a very welcome surprise and will allow for Dad to join us all for grandson Bryce's missionary homecoming. We walked the halls with Mom for her daily exercise and she just gets out there and goes. That is after she gets all gowned up and gets her oxegyn and face mask on. She is still feeling really good and was watching a movie this evening with Eileen. Please keep the prayers coming as they truly are blessings from heaven.

Good news abounds

Lots of great news today... For the last 5 days there have been no "blast cells" (leukemia cells) in Mom's pereferial(sp?) blood. Today the matched platelets arrived and the were matched by 97%. They began to transfuse them and by the time they hung the second bag her platelet count went from 11 thousand to 24 thousand and their goal is 30-50 thousand. She will receive two bags per day as needed. Her body, at this point, is no longer attacking the platelets. The last bag of chemo ran out this afternoon and Mom is still feeling great. So this brings her IV bag count down to two and she still has her hair. There are so many things still up in the air as far as what will be the next step, since she is doing so well they kind of have to figure it out as they go along. She continues to receive lots of visitors but is now wearing a face mask only as a precaution as she has now entered the "Nader" phase. This phase is where her immune systems are low and are subject to illness. So if you plan to stop by please make sure that you are not ill nor around anyone who is. She walks two to three times a day pushing her "Lizzie". (The pole with all the pumps and IV's) Dad also follows her pushing the oxygen tank which she has named "Ariel". I think the crazies are starting to set in because Dad is now singing amusing little "ditties" as they walk down the halls. There are so many wonderful nurses and staff members that are making this whole process much nicer to endure. You need only be in the room for a few moments to see what great care she is receiving.

Good news

I just got off the phone with Mom and Dad and Mom sounded really great! She is getting her bodily functions back to normal and really feeling good. I was talking alot of technical mumbo jumbo with Dad about blood and when Mom was admitted to the hospital her Leukemia level in her blood was at 7%, a couple of days later it had dropped to 4% then 3% and yesterday to 0%!!! This is in the "periferial blood" only, meaning the blood in her body outside the marrow. They will check her bone marrow after 14 days to see where she is at. In the meantime she has been given a portable oxegyn tank so that she can walk more extensively and today she went for a long walk and then does exercises in bed. She needs to keep her lungs moving so that they don't fill with fluid. Dad assures me that she is in the best possible care at the hospital. Thats all for now more info to come later.

Steady as she goes

Well today was another great day! Dad tells me the doctors keep telling them how well Mom is doing. She continues to have visitors and Kevin made it in today and I'm sure that really lifted Mom's spirits. She is beginning to regain her appetite and has been eating some yummy soup that Kim (who has been a constant presence and support) brought for her. She is also beginning to flush out the fluids from her system. She had gained 20, yes I said 20, pounds of fluid weight since being admitted on Thursday. The doctors had been giving her so many fluids that her body couldn't dispose of them quickly enough. They are continuing to give her platelets to maintain levels until they are able to find the match in Los Angeles. She will be finishing this first round of chemotherapy on Friday. She is receiving two types of chemo and the first was a series of three shots, one each day for three days. The other is an IV drip 24 hours a day for 7 days. Kevin and the boys came over from Elko to visit and Mom was so happy to see them. We are all "cautiously optimistic" as my friend Alan put it. I will say this, the power of prayer is hard at work, the lord is truly blessing our family.

Small victories

Well today was a very positive day. The most recent blood analysis came back with good results. Mom's platelets are holding steady now and the white cell count is coming down but most importantly Dad says her cancer cells are beginning to die off! Also the doctors are telling her that she is through the worst of this round of chemo. We hope that this is true and she will be well on her way to recovery. I would like to thank all of you for your warm wishes and heartfelt thoughts and prayers and to all of our friends who don't even know Mom who are keeping us in their prayers. We are truly blessed to have you in our lives. Mom has continued to have many visitors and we will soon be adding a guest list feature to the blog. Much love to all.

A better day

I just talked to Mom and Dad and they said today was a really good day! The doctor told them that today should have been the worst day for Mom but she was doing very well. So he decided to put the chemo back up to full strength because her kidney function was doing much better. She only had 3 episodes of nauesa today. On the down side Mom's anti-bodies attacked and killed off all of the platelets that they had given her so they are sending some samples to Los Angeles as they are looking for a better match for her. She sounded good and said she was feeling pretty good although very tired and ready for much needed sleep. They had lots of family stop by today and it helps to pass the time.

Day two

First and foremost I would like to thank all of the friends and family that have stopped by to visit mom over the last two days. I know that means a lot to her and dad that you would take the time to check in on her. Today was a tougher day than yesterday as the effects of the chem are starting to set in. She a couple bouts of nausea and two more units of blood today. She has had 5 different types of IV's at the same time ranging from the chemo to nausea med's to maintence fluids and anti-biotics. As you can understand at this time her immune system is greatly depleated so again cards, letters, and visits are always welcome as these will lift her spirits but please remember that if you or any immediate family member is ill you will not be admitted. Please check in with the nurses station for instruction on hand washing etc... Also no fresh flowers please.

Round 1

Things are happening so fast I really don't know where to start...As you all know by now Mom was diagnosed with Accute Meyologenous Leukemia (AML). She has been admitted to LDS hospital in Salt Lake and will be enjoying an extended stay of up to 6 weeks. On Thursday Mom, Dad, Kim and Blake went to the hospital for a consultation at the Leukemia center and after determining their course of action they admitted her to the hospital on the spot. Her doctor Dr. Hoda (sp?) wants to treat her aggressively. Today there was an issue with her kidney function so they decided to cut her first round of chemotherapy by half. She has several IV's hooked up and has received two units of blood and will get another tonight. Cards, letters, calls and prayers are all welcome. Address to come later. She is in room 9 at the LDS hospital in SLC.