Week Twelve; Transplant Date is Announced...

This begins the week twelve...

I am posting this information early because it is such GREAT news!

The donor has signed his release and will be doing his work up on July 7. The results of his test will be forwarded to our BMT team here in Denver along with blood samples for cross-match. A decision will be made to move forward the following day.

Barring any complications the donors bone marrow will be harvested on July 27. Depending on how many cells are harvested in the first procedure; they may need to make a second harvest on the morning of July 28. The stems cells will be flown to Denver arriving late that evening (depends on the flight the courier catches; they buy several tickets for backup). The Denver BMT team will process the Stem Cells and Jody should receive them on the 29th.

Meanwhile the push is on! Doctors, Doctors and more Doctors...

Good News! It just keeps happening... Tuesday, Jody had a Pulmonary stress test to see how she has recovered from her bout with pneumonia. She passed with flying colors. Her lungs have healed to 97% of expected function and her CAT scan showed most of the pneumonia was gone from her lungs. The pulmonary doctor was dictating to the BMT team a letter that she was clear to proceed with the transplant. Jody has been stressing over this test all of the last two weeks and now it is behind us.

We are off for a second hair cut today. She wants to go a little at a time. Jody has just about decided she won't shave it all off. In our support group meetings some of the other cancer patients had little or no hair loss with their chemo. The nurses and all the doctors say she will loose her hair, BUT the ever positive person Jody is; "What if they are wrong?" "Maybe I won't loose my hair." Well, I guess we will see... I will keep you updated. This is now the big topic. We have now moved past the pulmonary doctor to hair loss.

OK here we are... She had another 1/2" taken off along with me. Jody is planning one more cut before she goes to the hospital. Oh yeah, a pedicure, foot massage and manicure... of course! I am just going to BUZZ the last bit off.

She wanted me to include a picture of the two of us together

We met with Dr. Faragher's staff on Friday and her CBC blood test was great. Her platelets remained low, so we are continuing to hold off on the Hydroxurea medicine. This is great news! She continues to show improvement and her strength and stamina has returned.
This weekend Jody and I are preparing for the arrival of her friend Trudy (along with her family; husband Derick and their three children) from New Jersey. They are coming to Denver for a ten day vacation and possible house hunting (just thinking about moving west). They will be staying with us a couple of days as they explore the surrounding area. We hope to be able to spend some time with them and their children. They arrive late Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday we are scheduled for a whole battery of tests including a bone marrow biopsy to measure the progression of her disease. It will be a long and exhausting day. It should be the last of the doctor exams. All that will remain is our training and preparation class.
This completes my post for week twelve...

Eleventh week

Here it is the eleventh week and we are about five weeks out from the transplant. Jody has continued to grow in strength and stamina. Her CBC (see "Jody's Disease" March 27) results on Tuesday confirmed that the transfusion we got last week improved her HCT and Hemoglobin. These two measurements tell us her blood's ability to carry oxygen. We decided to celebrate and go to Olive Garden for lunch. A little wine and all the soup and salad you want.



Wednesday we took her father, Joe to his eye doctor. Since we were out we decided to stop off at the Atlanta Bread Company for lunch.



Thursday we felt inspired by the US open and decide to play golf. We live next to Green Valley Ranch, which has a beautiful golf course including a quiet little Par 3 course. Jody likes it because we can walk and no one is pushing. We played the same nine holes twice and she ALMOST beat me. Whew!



There is a exhibition at Denver Natural History Museum that Jody really wanted to see called "Body World". If you have not had the chance to see this exhibit, it is well worth the $40. It is very intense to see, but it vividly shows what a work of art our bodies truly are and how complex our circulation system is and how it functions. On Friday we decided to go. It was everything we expected and more.



Saturday, we decided to attend a workshop called "Couples Dealing with Cancer". We were apprehensive, but actually had a great time. We learned about communication, how to communicate with each other, and trust in each other. The really neat thing we learned was that we were not alone, and in spite of what my children may think we are not crazy. It was enlightening to hear that the other couples were having the same thoughts and challenges we are having. I want to share with you a tool that was shared with us. This card was a handout given to us as a "Strategic Tool". Love is a Journey and a I think this is a great tool for all of us to use. I want to give credit to the authors Jan Latona Ph.D. and Gary J. Stricklin Ph.D.. Their website is http://www.couplesfacingcancer.com/ Thank you for sharing with us and helping us on our journey.

Week Ten

Jody's strength is returning... Everyday she seems to be getting stronger. This is important the stronger she gets the better she can tolerate the transplant.

We have been getting weekly CBC's to watch Jody's blood counts and on Wednesday the triage nurse decided we needed to get a transfusion. Jody's blood count had dropped from the week before. I noticed she was running on low while her friends were here from New Jersey. This is normal with her disease. We spent the entire day at Centennial Hospital and arrived home around 10:00 that evening.

The following day, Thursday we went back to the hospital to have her filter removed (see "Week Six"). The process was quick but required her to be put to sleep. During recovery she had a difficult time getting her oxygen level back up. The nurse finally released her, knowing that we were going to have a follow-up with her primary doctor at 3:00 that afternoon.

Dr Tormohlen, noted that her oxygen had not returned to normal and decided to play it safe and ordered home oxygen service for her. This did not go over well with Jody. She protested all the way home and after the oxygen was delivered she kept it up. Anyone who knows Jody can appreciate what I am saying. Dr Tormohlen told her he would re-check her on Saturday.

On Saturday, her oxygen levels had begun to return to normal. He told her she could be off oxygen during the day, but he wanted her to stay on it at night for awhile.

This completes week ten...

Week Eight and Nine

We are now approximately eight weeks out...

The last two weeks have been a flurry of doctor appointments. We have seen an infectious disease doctor a pulmonary doctor, a ears, nose and throat doctor. We have been to see Dr. Faragher and Jody's primary doctor. She has an appointment set with her dentist, and her gynaecologists. In addition to laboratory work everything is coming back positive.

The afternoon of June 3rd, Jody's two best friends from New Jersey flew in for a quick visit. Carolyn Comforth and her daughter Alma. It was quite a boost to Jody's spirit and we all had fun.

Our adventures led us "The Fort" for dinner, where Carolyn experienced an Elk chop and Alma had a pretend birthday. We all had a great time.

On our return from one of our many shopping trips we saw a rainbow. We raced off to find where it ended and discovered it was coming from our house. Carolyn and Alma thought it was a beautiful sign.

I committed to Jody that I would get my hair buzzed off prior to her intense chemo treatment, where she will lose most of her hair. Just prior to their visit I decided to get my haircut in preparation for my BUZZ. I thought if I went in stages it would be less of a shock.

Below is the BEFORE

and here is the AFTER... you be the judge

Since we are showing off hairstyles here is Jody's after picture (notice her before in the picture above). She decided to take it in stages, so in a couple of weeks it will be even shorter... What are your thoughts?

I think she's beautiful!







This now completes week eight and nine...

Week Seven

Jody has continued to make progress during the week. She had a private nurse and a physical therapist visiting her through out the week. I kept busy doing the census.

On Monday following Kurt, Shawn and Scot's departure, I became ill. I guess my body finally gave up the battle. I came down with a terrific sore throat and head cold. By Wednesday, after moping around, in and out of bed I finally went to the doctor. My doctor told me I was stressed (I wonder why?) and I just needed to rest and let the cold take it's course. She gave me pain medicine for my throat and sent me home to bed.

When we left the hospital the (hospital) doctors had decided to stop all of Jody's blood disease drugs, as well as all of her chemo drugs. We were told to hold off re-starting the drug treatment regiment until our meeting with Dr. Bumvand (BMT... see "Jody's Treatment") on Friday the 21st of May. The drugs were obviously causing all of her problems.


After the Borchoscopy results came back the doctors determined that Jody had developed an Eosinophilic Pneumonia. (Eosinophils are white blood cells, which are a part of the immune system responsible for fighting infections.) In normal individuals eosinophils make up about 1-6% of white blood cells; Jody's were off the chart. In addition, she had developed a yeast infection in her lungs, which was thought to be brought on by the antibiotics being used to fight her pneumonia. They discovered once they stopped the antibiotics her lungs began to improve. They also found that after stopping the chemo drugs her eosinophils began to drop. Basically, in layman's terms she was being over-medicated.


Our meeting with Dr. Bumvand gave us the hope we were looking for... He gave us the news that his assistant, Pat Wagner had indeed found a perfect match for Jody's bone marrow transplant (see "Third Week"). He wanted proceed, full speed, and set a date to perform the bone marrow transplant. He decided on the third or forth week of July. He instructed his assistant to contact the donor and set the date. Dr. Brumvand wanted to keep Jody to remain off the cancer fighting drugs to avoid any further reactions. He told us he would consult with Dr. Faragher would only react to her disease with medications if needed.

Pat Wagner told us the donor match was a 10 out of 10 and we could not ask for any better match. She also let us know the donor is a young male, and that he is an international donor. We pressed her to tell us more, she could only tell us he was two time zones away. The only other information she could share was that he was gay.

This completes the seventh week.

Week Six

We are still in the hospital...

They ( the pulmonary doctors) could not determine the cause of her breathing difficulties, so they decided to do a bronchoscopy to observe what was causing her breathing problems. In addition they wanted to get a sample of the tissue in her lungs.

The procedure was scheduled for first thing Saturday morning. It was risky, but the doctors felt it was the only way to determine what was going on in her lungs. Earlier CT scans had eliminated blood clots in her lungs and there was no apparent pneumonia.

During Thursday night she suffered a severe nose bleed as well as Friday morning just prior to her brocnhoscopy. Her prothrombin time (PT) test, which gives us her international normalized ratio (INR) had risen to over 5.0 (this is a measure of her blood's ability to clot). A person's normal INR is 2.0 to 2.5. The doctors had stopped her comuadin, which was being used to thin her blood and disolve her blood clot in her leg, but her INR had not dropped significantly. By late Friday the doctors decided to proceed with the bronchoscopy. During the procedure they nicked her throat causing her to cough up blood. She was admitted to ICU (Intensive Care Unit).

I was determined to spend the night, but the nurses insisted I go home and rest. Thank goodness Linda was in town to help.

During her recovery in ICU the doctors felt it was best to insert a VC-Filter. A VC-Filter (vena cava filter) is inserted typically through your carotid artery in your neck and placed in your inferior vena cava, which is a large vein that carries blood from your lower extremities to your heart and lungs. This filter is like a umbrella, which is closed when inserted and when it is released it opens up to catch any clot moving through the vein. It will need to be removed later when the blood clot is considered to be safe or fully dissolved. By Sunday (Mother's day) she had improved enough to allow them proceed with inserting the filter. We had several scary days in ICU and by Monday, May 10 (our second wedding anniversary) she had improved enough to be moved to ACU (advanced care unit).

It was beautiful to see her standing as I came into the room! We both hugged, cried and made general fools of ourselves explaining to the nurses that it was our second anniversary. Thanks to everyone who sent cards and flowers. That evening we had our anniversary dinner, she had lemon ice and I had pot roast with mashed potatoes. Both of us thought it was better than any steak dinner at the finest restaurant. (My friends know how I like to eat!)

By Wednesday, she was ready to be released by the doctors. Linda had left for home earlier that morning and I raced to the hospital to pick her up. Jody's brother Kurt, along with his wife Shawn and their youngest son Scot were coming for a visit on Friday. Jody tried to stand and walk in preparation for our departure, but she was in such excruciating pain she could not move. The doctors became concerned that something from her disease was causing the pain, they decided to keep her for a couple days and start her on morphine for the pain.

It was determined they (the treating physicians) needed to do a MRI to see what was causing the pain in her hip (see week four and five). The MRI was scheduled early Thursday morning. Her pain had increased from the night before and things were delayed, when finally by 8:00 that evening she was able to travel to the radiology room for the MRI. The results of the MRI would be read the next morning.

Friday, Kurt and his family arrived, we picked up Joe (Jody and Kurt's father) at the nursing home and we all went to the hospital. Jody was feeling better, sitting up in a chair as we entered the room. During our visit the physical therapist arrived to evaluate her condition. She struggled to walk around the room. The therapist said she was moving better and felt that getting up out of bed and moving around would help her to improve. Joe (who is 94 years old) felt differently and decided she should stay another week. Jody would hear nothing of it.

Latter that evening the Orthopedic Doctor who read her MRI came in to tell us he saw nothing wrong with her hip and felt she had a muscle pulling on her nerve causing the pain. He ordered a deep heat therapy for her on Saturday morning and saw no reason for her not to be released.

The hospital doctors released her from the hospital that afternoon and by 2:00 we were home again. Once we settled Jody in Kurt, Shawn, Scott and I planted the garden along with flowers in all of Jody's pots. It is a very special garden, a gift of love from her brother. It means so much to her and me, we had thought we might not have a garden this year, but thanks to Kurt (who insisted we plant the garden), Shawn and Scot they made it happen. Kurt said it best, when he said "your blog site is called Jody's garden, so why shouldn't she have her garden. Thanks Kurt she is really enjoying her garden.

This completes week number six.