Into the thick of it – again

I haven’t given an update in a while because nothing much has happened.

I continue to be healthy. All my check ups and tests come back positive.  My aches and pains continue but are improving.

My days are spent on the sofa or doing small chores around the house.  The weather here has been cold and snowy so we only walk when weather permits, but I am increasing my endurance and distance.

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I butikk nå: Sommerens lekreste kjoler

Now we prepare for a quiet Easter (we get a nice long Easter vacation here in Norway). We send the kids to Tanzania tomorrow morning to experience a Salvation Army orphanage. Please pray for them, their trip and their traveling companions.

I hope you all have a peaceful and blessed Easter.  I’ll update again when something happens.  Right now no news is good news.

I thought I’d check in and let you all know what’s going on.

The pain in my arms is mostly gone. It has turned into achy shoulders and shaky hands. But I am improving a little every day.

I was at the hospital for a control yesterday and everything is looking good.  My blood is healthy and my liver function is improving with every check up.  The big news yesterday was that my blood / marrow is now 99+% from the donor. I now have two different DNAs in my body, one in my meat, one in my blood. That is exactly what is supposed to happen and I’m very happy about it.  I’m just a little disappointed that the Brian Howard marrow rolled over and died so quickly –  I would like to think that he put up at least  some fight.  I guess I understand though – we have worked hard to break it down and kill it over the past year and a half.

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Vårens kuleste sneakers til henne

So that’s where I stand now.  Lots of DNA, still a little pain.  As always your prayers and encouragement are greatly appreciated.

I’ve tried to keep this blog blue-eyed and smiley for the most part. I share the good and the bad but try to mostly focus on the good. But the truth is that recently there is almost as much pain as happiness going on. This process has many facets to it. All of them are equally true and real.

Fact 1: Most importantly is that the transplant so for has been a success and my blood levels and prognosis are very good.There is every reason to belive I will remain cancer free.

Fact 2: The past week I’ve been in horrible pain as my body adjust to the medicines I have to take in order to not reject the new bone marrow growing inside my bones. My arms have been in a lot of pain and almost unusable. It’s been one of the most difficult weeks of my cancer experience. But that said, the doctors say this is a normal side effect and not at all unusual. I will be dealing with this and various side effects for the next 6 to 12 months.

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In the big picture everything is good and should be fine in the end but the road getting there is going to be long and difficult. We take it one day at a time and I continue to need your prayers and encouragement. Even though my levels are good I am still in the thick of it.

The past few days I have really been enjoying life.  I was allowed to go home last Friday.  All my blood cells are being produced and working properly.

On Saturday my daughter Sarah came home from a week in America and brought my mother with her. Mom has been keeping company while the rest of the family is at work or school.  It’s nice having her here.

One of the medicines I take can and will cause any manner of chaos in the body. For the past few days my arms have been as good as useless.  They were sore and achy and pretty much immobile.  It was a miserable couple of days.  Turns out that my dosage was too high and that is how it manifested itself.  Apparently this sort of problem will be an on going challenge for the next year or so.

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Jakkene som får frem vårfølelsen

In general I’m doing well, but I’m still weak and tired and have a battle going on inside of me.  I mostly spend my days on the sofa under a blanket.  I still have a long road ahead of me before I’m my old self again. Between the medicines and my own body I feel like I have my work cut out for me.  But all of it is normal. This is a long, windy road full of up and downs and surprises.  It will get done one day at a time. And as always your prayers are needed and appreciated.

Today is day 13 (post transplant) – signs of new life in the blood usually start appearing around day 21. For some people it’s a little earlier, for some people it takes a little longer.  I got the news on Saturday (day 11) that I had Neutofiler (white blood cells) on 0.1 – today they are 0.2 (for reference – 0.5 is a healthish immune system (for a sick person))  So I am about 10 days ahead of schedule and things are going well.

I can’t go home yet but I am being transferred to patient hotel here by the hospital.  Its like a regular hotel, only it’s 200 ft from the hospital.  They will do follow up appointments three times a week at the hospital, but besides that I’m on my own, as if I were staying in a hotel.  There are possibilities for May to stay there with me, but she would be a regular paying customer. And they don’t validate parking.

So exactly what we have been praying for and hoping for has happened. God brought me out of the valley quickly and easily.  Minimal side effects and misery.  I still have a way to go before I’m healthy – still have to manage any potential Graft v Host Disease (rejection) and stuff but things are looking good and moving forward with great speed and comfort.  Thank you God.

Annonsørinnhold

Vårens kuleste sneakers til henne

According to the Transplant calendar today is day ten.  That means that I am about mid way through the three week valley.  I like to think that I am now walking out of the valley instead deeper into it.  But now is when I truly am In The Thick Of It.

Its been a rough couple of days. Wednesday was especially bad, as the dreaded fever came and took me out of commission.  In addition there have been stomach issues with vomiting and nausea.  But I seem to be doing a little better today.  I’ve eaten a banana and it has stayed down for twenty-five minutes. A small victory, but a victory none the less.  And although my stomach is passionately singing whale songs right now, it doesn’t seem to be too disturbed.

For today I will try to stay put in my chair and keep busy.  Not sure what I’ll do but the days always seem to pass, even if they do so slowly.  Hopefully I can come back to you in a few days with good news, no fever and functioning belly.

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Jakkene som får frem vårfølelsen

I thought I’d give everyone a few snapshots into my crazy existence.

So apparently I’m on steroids now. Not the bicep, ab, shoulder kind, but the eyebrow, toenail, blood kind.  You know those crazy long eyebrows guys over forty get?  Well mine are on steroids – until they fall out next week.  Guinness and Ripley’s are fighting over the photo rights to my toes.

One of the new meds I’m makes me retain water. And wouldn’t you know it, the doctors gave me too much.  No big danger there, but it increased the amount of water I retained.  After a few days I was like a water balloon. I couldn’t bend my fingers and could almost hear the water squishing around in my feet.  I got medicine for it which worked.  I went down 7 pounds right away.

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20 bestselgere som garanterer nytelse

I have been having some very busy dreams.  The type of dreams that pick right up again after I wake up and fall asleep again in the middle of the night. They carry on through the entire night.  Not the best way to restore oneself.  One evening I was on a scavenger hunt and had to find and carry all these crazy clues. Another night I was overseeing people making tents and old time first century jewelry (I had just watched the Chosen) and I had to check every stitch, every bead, every piece of leather they used.  It was exhausting.  Luckily, I was nauseous the next night and asked for an anti nausea tablet. I took it and slept like a baby.  I mentioned it to the nurse in the morning and it turns out the anti nausea tablet I took was actually an anti-psychotic that moonlights as anti nausea medicine.  “It stills the voices in your head” the nurse told me.  Didn’t know I was psychotic, but at least I got a solid night’s sleep and didn’t want to throw up.

I spoke to the doctor today about all my aches and pains (its amazing what you notice when you don’t have anything else to do except worry about plagues you) and she said that nothing I was experiencing was out of the ordinary. I am on track and progressing according to plan both inside and out.  If these are easy days, I’m not looking forward to the weeks that follow

It’s over. I had the transplant today and everything went perfectly.

My donor was a twenty two year old male – no idea where he was from.  But according to the Doctor he delivered perfectly – not too many cells, not too few, but exactly what they were hoping to harvest.  Thank you God.

The transplant was just like a blood transfusion so there was no drama involved.  Plenty of emotion, but no drama.

Annonsørinnhold

I butikk nå: Sommerens lekreste kjoler

Now that its over I am super tired. I think now that it’s over all the anxiety, fear, stress, and nerves have retreated and my weary body needs a rest.  I should sleep well tonight.

What happens next is – I should have five OK days, then things will start to go down hill.  How far and how fast remain to be seen. But after those five days I should have a rough patch of about to weeks with some of the side effect I described in my last entry and a few unknowns caused by the donor cells and the meds I’m taking to counter any graft / host problems and get my body to accept the new bone morrow.  But in about three weeks from today (+ -) I should start feeling better and my body should start putting itself together again, and hopefully another two weeks after that I should be on my way home to start recovering properly.

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.  It really means a lot to me knowing I have so many people behind me cheering me on.

Tomorrow is the big day.  I’ve started on two different medications that are supposed to combat or at least ease the Graft Host disease which is common with transplants. That’s where your body fights the new cells / bone marrow.  I’m not expecting any major reaction, but some reaction is normal.  It’s scary going into this, but I’m already knee deep so no turning back now – I don’t like the alternative.

My donor should be arriving today for the harvesting of his bone marrow.  I won’t meet him. I won’t be able to know anything about him except his approximate age. But from tomorrow on we’ll share the same DNA in our blood. I’m grateful for his willingness to show up and do this for me.

Some people celebrate their transplant days like they would a birthday – their new chance at life.  I will not be celebrating February 7th as transplant day.  I’ll always remember the day and be grateful for the new chance I have been given, but February 7th will always be my sister’s birthday and we’ll continue to celebrate her that day.

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Jakkene som får frem vårfølelsen

I’m finished with chemo therapy – hopefully forever. The Norwegians call chemotherapy cellegift, which translates to cell poison, which is exactly what it is.  Its designed to kill – it kills the cancer and kills the person. Luckily the doctors know how much to give to take the one while leaving the other, thank God, and within about three weeks the body will begin repairing itself again, provided everything goes according to plan.  But while it kills the cancer, it also, more slowly but equally effective, it kills the person as well.  It wipes out your immune system, you lose your hair, you lose your appetite and makes you nauseous, it damages your muscles, including your heart and gives you sores on the inside of your mouth. It dries out your eyes and you skin, effects your finger nails, changes you tastebuds, fogs your brain, gives you fevers and rashes and changes the way your sweat smells, not for better or worse, just different – not you anymore. In the net two to three weeks I will experience most, but not all of these side effects. Those are just side effects from the chemo, the transplant itself and medication involved with it present a whole other set of potential challenges.  But I’ll get through it and in six months it will just be a memory.

I tell you this not because I want you to feel sorry for me or tell me how brave I am (I’m actually kind of scared) but because I’ve got a rough road ahead of me and I’d really appreciate your prayers. There is no reason to think I can’t handle it.  So if you pray, please pray for me (remember to thank God that I’ve made this far is good condition and to pray for the donor) – If you don’t pray, now would be a good time to start – or at least wish me well.

At some point in the near future I’ll let you know how the transplant went and how I am doing – hopefully tomorrow.

I’m back and settled in to my second home.  I have been blessed once again with a single room – an answer to prayer.

I’m already on my second (of five) day of chemo and so far so good.  It’s still early so there is no expectation of any side effects just yet.  Just a little nausea which is unavoidable.  The big stuff will kick in next week.

They have an exercise group which they are selling as a research project.  Transplant patients can go outside and walk and stretch three days a week.  I understand that exercise and motion are important to the recovery, and I’m looking forward to the fresh air (but not the icy sidewalks) – but I don’t believe that it’s really a research project.  I think they call it that so that men will consider joining.  Nobody wants to exercise with a bunch of cancer patients, not even other cancer patients.  But we know it’s important and I guess being part of a research project, doing your part for science is enough of an excuse to get men to join in.  It wasn’t for me, but May “encouraged” me to join and I hate to let her down.

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20 bestselgere som garanterer nytelse

I’m still supposed to eat my way through this.  So far I’m doing OK. I realized last night that the Norwegian dish fiskegrateng tastes a lot like a cheap crabcake with no Old Bay.  Fiskegrateng is basically a crabcake, but with white fish instead of crab meat- cooked in a baking form.  It’s actually not bad and I think if I could add a little old bay and mustard, and close my eyes, I could easily pretend I was eating a grocery store crabcake.  I’ll let you know next week when fiskegrateng day rolls around again.

Besides thinking about eating cheap crabcakes I spend my days reading, studying and watching a few series. Life is pretty for the moment – all things considered.