Home for Father's Day and My Recovery

Miracles happen. I was able to leave the hospital just 16 days after my transplant. Dr. Clyde Ford, one of my Oncologists, says he's pretty sure that's a record. I feel pretty good, though my energy levels fail me before I want or expect them to. Noelle says I do too much, and she's probably right. She has me napping every day to regain my strength.

Father's Day was nice...mostly. My wife and kids did everything they could to make it a relaxing, memorable day for me, but four of them were not healthy. Noelle and Jenna had low-grade fevers and Noelle had stomach cramps that made it difficult to impossible for her to eat. Michael and Emma both had fevers (Michael's was 102 degrees and Emma's was over 100 degrees) and weren't interested in eating much. So I got up and got breakfast for the kids, and let Noelle sleep in a little. She got up around 10:00, in time to get herself ready and take kids to Church for Sacrament meeting. Michael and Emma's fevers hadn't risen to the levels I've mentioned yet. It wasn't until the afternoon that they started to do so. Some of us had my Father's Day meal of choice: milkshakes. Granted, that WOULD NOT have been what I chose for dinner under normal circumstances, but eating solid foods is a chore right now. Even with over half of us not feeling well, the kids and Noelle all gave me little gifts. The kids had each filled out a paper called "Meet My Dad." It was pretty funny to see how each of my kids chose to describe me. Also, there were lots of little gifts made at home or at church. Noelle gave me a framed thing about fathers. It's hard to describe, so here's a picture of it.

My "big" Father's Day and Birthday gift came a few weeks ago while at the hospital: a brand new iPad. It was very helpful in the hospital, as my laptop is on the fritz and truly hates me, I think.

We're moving forward with the donor drive that's scheduled for my birthday, June 28th. I'll have plenty of volunteers, and should have more than 100 people coming to register in person. There are two people I know who have gotten their kits and sent them in already. One is going to a drive this weekend. Another has ordered her kit. My mother tells me of two people she works with who have committed to order the kits and join the registry. Hopefully, she'll follow up with them and ensure they keep their promise. That's 6 people already added or being added. I'm excited for the drive.

My energy levels get better every day. I still get nauseous and puke every so often - about once a day - but it's not too much to deal with. I just wish I had more lead time with my nausea. I get that nauseous feeling, and I've got about 30 seconds or so until I'm puking. That's frustrating and sometimes inconvenient, but what can I do about it? Nothing, unfortunately.

Well, not too much to report, I guess. At least I don't know what else to say, so I'll just end for now.

Homeward Bound...?

Well, after three and a half weeks here in the hospital, it looks like I'll be going home tomorrow. There have been a ton of healing thoughts, fasting, and prayers offered in my behalf to make this happen. I am so thankful for all the hundreds of people who have kept me in their thoughts and prayers. I do not believe in miracles...I KNOW MIRACLES HAPPEN! A few weeks ago, Noelle and I were walking the halls and we bumped into a member of our medical team. We told them that we expected to be out of here by Father's Day, and they drew back a little and told us that our expectations were too aggressive and suggested that we should revise it to be closer to my birthday. Noelle and I refused to revise our expectations, and here we are. I believe strongly in the power of positive thinking. I believe you get what you EARNESTLY and PRAYERFULLY seek. Yes, I said prayerfully. This is my blog , so I'm allowed as many "soapbox moments" as I want, so here we go...

God is a real being. He is our creator. Also the Bible says, He created us in His image, which means that we are like him. He is not some nebulous thing floating around somewhere. He is our Father. He loves us, His offspring. He is perfect, and His love is a perfect love. He knows all things, including the lessons we most need to learn and the best ways to teach them to us. Sometimes, as good parents do, He lets us suffer a little so we can learn our lessons more deeply, more thoroughly, and so we can develop traits that make Him perfect and make us more like Him. These are traits like love, compassion and patience. His Holy Son, our perfect Brother, Jesus Christ, said that our responsibility as Christ's followers (disciples) is to become perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. We can't develop perfect patience or compassion without having suffered a little...or perhaps a lot. When, in the midst of our own struggles and afflictions, we reach out to our Father in sincere prayer, He listens, and always rewards our humility with what's best for us. Sometimes, what's best for us is the answer, "No." (Remember Christ's supplication of his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking Him to remove the bitter cup if He were willing to do so. It needed to happen, so the answer was "No.") Other times, what's best for us is precisely what we seek, because what we seek is in line with His will. (Also remember Christ's humble plea, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.") My point here is this: dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people have been praying for me to enjoy a speedy recovery. Last night, I wrote on Facebook about Noelle's and my desires for me to be home for Father's Day and mentioned the need for my neutrophils to be at 500 or higher by Friday morning. Lots of people saw that and prayed for what we needed. The neutrophils jumped from 200 yesterday to 700 today. I just had a visit with Dr. Ford, who says that unless my white cells or neutrophils take some unexpected dip over night, I can expect to go home tomorrow. That is God answering prayers and providing a miracle for one of His children. Our prayers were in line with His will, and the miracle was provided. 

Lessons have been learned over these past few weeks, lessons that couldn't have been learned without some suffering. I have increased in patience. I have increased in compassion. I have increased in love for my wife and children, for my donor, for the dozens of individuals here at the hospital who have had a hand in taking care of me, and for the hundreds of family and friends who have followed what's been going on and who have been sending me their healing thoughts and healing white light, and sending their prayers up to God in behalf of me and my family. I'm so blessed to have amazing people in my life. 

A Room With a View

The worst part of my first 18 days here has been the view - or lack thereof - out my window. I've been looking westward at another wing that runs parallel to this one. I've been in the wrong part of the building to have any view at all. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I HAVE had a view of Temple Square...when I'm standing by my bathroom door. Other than that, just a view of the west wing of the building. 

I think it pays to be a patient that everyone likes (pardon me while I pull a muscle patting my own back). The entire nursing staff and all of the doctors have known that when a room with a nice view becomes available, I have wanted them to let me know about it. Well, Wednesday morning, Dr. Sarada Krishnamurthy let Noelle and I know that room 854 would be vacated yesterday and that if I wanted to do so, I could move into it after it had been properly cleaned. We were also told that room 803 would likely become available on Saturday. Rooms with even numbers look out their windows to the east, and odd numbers to the west. The only odd-numbered rooms with a view of anything other than the building would be rooms on the end, like 801 or 803, with views of the valley to the south-west. Perhaps room 853, on the north end, might have a view of Ensign Peak, but not great. So, yesterday evening, I went for a walk around the unit, and when I got to the nurses' station, I asked if 854 had been vacated yet and if so, if I could see it briefly to decide if it would be worth it for me to move to it. I was taken down to the room, which had JUST been vacated. Wow! Two windows instead of one, side by side, with the bed right next to the window. The room is really big, too. With the length of this stay, why in the world wouldn't I want it? Yes, there's the chance that just a day from now, a room with a spectacular view of the valley and the temple would become available, but I didn't want to peg my hopes on that, only to find that the view isn't as good as I had hoped. I jumped on the opportunity to take room 854. I'm so glad I did. 

Here's the view from my last room, East 811...

And here's a shot of my new room...

And my new view... 

"Enjoying" Abdominal Pains and Mouth Sores

Well, the past couple days have been marked with the advent of two not-so-fun side effects of the chemo and my lack of neutrophils: mouth sores and pains in the abdomen. The abdominal pains began on Saturday night and have increased since then in both intensity and frequency. Yesterday morning, we had a CT scan done on my abdomen to see if we could find the cause of the discomfort, but alas, we found nothing. In one way, that's encouraging: there's no infection. On the other hand, what the heck IS causing the pain? We don't know. So, for now, we're just treating me for the pain and ensuring that it doesn't get out of hand. The pain in my abdomen does spike on occasion, leaving me feeling weak and making it difficult to breathe. It seems to be worse when I stand up or walk.

The mouth sores are along the outer edges of my tongue, right where the tongue rubs against my teeth. Not so much fun. I'm also developing a sore back-of-the-throat. If it all gets much worse I may have to ditch eating for a while and go on TPN (IV nutrition that both looks and smells like sour milk).

I'm getting very excited about the drive I'll be holding on my birthday (June 28) for donors to be added to the National Marrow Donor Program's registry. That's how my donor was found, and I want to give back to the system that has potentially saved my life. We don't know yet, nor will we know for some time, what are the end-results of my allogeneic (donor) stem cell transplant, but what I do know is this...without my transplant, the chance of a cure for my cancer stood at 0%. Now, it's much, much better than that. I have set the goal for myself to see 100 people added to the donor registry that weekend, and I'm working hard to see that happen. I have invited all of my Facebook friends, and several of them have invited others. I'm hoping that my efforts are enough. This is something I feel incredibly passionate about. I'm even going to try to lure more people there with some discounted food from Café Rio, Moki's Hawaiian Grill or Chili's and a special appearance by Jeremy Hoop's band, Mayday RED. We'll see how it goes.

My donor's cells should start to show us something somewhere around Day 12 to 14, counting from the transplant date (May 29th) as "Day 0." Today was Day 7. So, in theory, some time during the first half of the coming week, my blood counts should begin to make a comeback and I should begin to feel better shortly thereafter. Here's hoping...

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to Me!

It's June! Is a month that has always signaled good things for me, starting with my birthday. And since 2000, Father's Day has been a part of that, too. Well, Father's Day is always the third Sunday of the month, and my birthday is always in the last week of the month, so why be excited about them, or even mention them, this early? Well, I'll get to that.

Last I wrote, I was in the middle of four days of preparative chemotherapy for my transplant. The remainder went well, with the exception of the fact that it was always super early in the morning. I didn't care much for that, but got through it. Monday and Tuesday were "rest" days from the chemo and before my transplant, but they were days for the infusion of another drug, called ATG. I don't remember what it stands for, but it's purpose is to ensure that my body wouldn't reject my donor's stem cells. Those two days went ok. I was really nervous about them because a number of patients end up in the ICU from the ATG. It was also the only thing about this transplant that differed a bit from the first one. But, I made it through just fine. On the two ATG days, I was given Benadryl to ward against an allergic reaction. It made me incredibly, incredibly drowsy, and (Noelle says) very funny to talk with. 

Tuesday evening I had a cool surprise. Kanani and Matt Oblad - old BYUH friends who live in Visalia, CA - popped in to see me. They're in town for some baptisms in their families, and had some time Tuesday evening to come in and cheer me up. They stayed for about an hour and it was so great to hang out with them. I'm so glad they carved out some time to see me.

Matt and Kanani and I...

Wednesday was my NEW new birthday. June 28th has always been my birthday, but when you receive a marrow or stem cell transplant, the date of the transplant becomes a new birthday. I've had two transplants, so now, I have three birthdays. Pretty cool, eh? Here are some pictures from my NEW new birthday.

The Package the cells arrived in...

The people who delivered them to me...

Me, signing my life away to get the cells...

My mom came for nine days to help with the kids while Noelle visited me during the day every day. She also spent both of her Saturdays with me here in the hospital. It's been really hard for her to be so far away and to feel so helpless. Now that she's met some of the staff helping me and caring for me, she feels much better.

Here's a picture of Mom and I from her visit...

Thursday through today has been all about monitoring my body's systems and ensuring that everything is running smoothly. This morning, my red blood cell count dropped below the threshold they have established for anemia for patients in my situation, so I received one unit of red blood cells in order to bring me back above that threshold. We'll see how my numbers look tomorrow. It's   par for the course to need transfusions when waiting for one's stem cells to engraft and begin to produce blood cells on its own. Last time I received 2 units of red cells and 2 units of platelets.

Here are my red cells going into me this morning...

Well, I need to take a nap. More later...