Yet another round of ESHAP required

I just got back from my meeting with Dr. Reeder and unfortunately the PET scan came out positive again. My body has been responding well to the chemotherapy but there are still a few small spots of cancer just below my collar bone and in my chest. Thankfully the mass in my chest has shrunk significantly! The plan now is to start another 5 day round of ESHAP this upcoming Monday and then wait 2-3 weeks to run another PET scan. Hopefully at that time the scan will be negative of any active cancer cells and I will be admitted into the hospital to start the transplant. Thank you to everyone for your continued support! 

As many of you also know, my friend John Gephart is running in the 2008 Honolulu Marathon for Team in Training in my honor. Below is a link to an article from todays Honolulu Advertiser spotlighting John's training and efforts to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Hawaii. Thanks again John, keep up the hard work!!!

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080924/COMPUB03/809240324/1224

My cousin Dallas has also informed me that her friend Becky Hurley will be running the 2008 San Francisco Marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training in my honor. I have never met Becky before but I want to thank her very much for the support and wish her the best of luck!!! Below is a link to her Team in Training webpage:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nce/nikesf08/bhurley

Malia: My Sister that thinks is my Mother!

So my sister Malia wasn't very pleased with the picture that I posted of her on my blog. In fact she is still complaining about it so here are two other pictures of her, not too sure how much she will like the second one but my tormenting her won't stop just because I am sick!

Malia and Andy (aka: Baby Huey)

Whatchu' looking at fool!

*** These photos are both courtesy of Andy's myspace page so if anyone is to blame it is him for putting them out there for me to access. 

Diamondbacks game and New Dates

I have another busy week here going between the Mayo Hospital in Phoenix and the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale everyday for tests and meetings before I am able to get cleared to go in for my transplant. I met with Chris my bone marrow transplant coordinator again yesterday and he let me know how surprised everyone truly was to find out my harvest numbers from last week. Apparently giving enough for three transplants in one sitting is an amazing feat, not that I did much besides just sit there, I guess I am just lucky! A good thing since I am sure it costs a lot of money each time I am hooked up to that machine...

According to Chris the results from my PET scan that I have this Friday are the most important indicator of when I will be admitted into the hospital for the transplant. If the scan shows active cancer cells I will have to go through another round of ESHAP chemotherapy but if it shows that the cancer is no longer active I will be admitted into the hospital on Sept. 25th. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the results will show the cancer no longer active so that I can get this transplant started and over with!!! 

If I am admitted into the hospital next week, I will spend the first day receiving fluids and medications in order to get me ready for the BEAM chemotherapy which will begin the following day and last for about 5 days if I remember correctly. BEAM is a lethal dose of chemotherapy that will destroy not only the cancer but also everything in my body (red/ white blood cells, immune system, etc...). After the chemotherapy my stem cells will then be reintroduced to my body in order to rebuild everything that they have killed off. But for the next few months I will have the immune system equivalent to that of a newborn so making sure that I don't get any infections will be critical. In fact, I will have to have all of the immunization shots that I was given as a child all over again because the BEAM will destroy those as well...

I am not really looking forward to going through the BEAM chemotherapy and the long stay in the hospital but I know that the end result will be worth the sickness and fight that I am going to have to endure for the next few weeks/ months. 

On a lighter note I was able to attend the Diamondbacks v. Reds game on Saturday night. Here is a picture from the nosebleed seats that we had. That little black spec on the mound is Randy Johnson. Thanks Bryn and Tahnie, fun times!

I am also very bummed that I will be missing the wedding of two of my best friends Ryan and Jenn this Saturday at Waialae Country Club. I want to wish you both the best of luck and I will be home soon enough, so be ready to celebrate again with me there!!! 

Blood Transfusion and Fall Harvest

I went into Mayo yesterday for a blood transfusion to boost my red blood cell count which had fallen to a really low level after my last chemotherapy treatment. I was a little nervous about the whole thing since I was going to be having someone else's blood put into my body, but I was reassured that it had been double and triple checked by the lab and was perfectly safe. I have donated blood before but have never been the recipient and I now know for a fact that donating blood is an extremely important thing to do!!! The process was a pretty simple one, they basically just hooked up the bags of blood to my ash-split catheter and slowly dripped it into my body...

While I was having my transfusion they also ran labs to see where my white blood cell counts were at. I got the good news that the levels had finally bottomed out and were now on their way back up, this meant that my bone marrow harvest was going to be very soon! On Saturday the count was at 3.8 and on Sunday it had gone up to 8.5. In order for the harvest to take place my rates had to reach anything over 10 which the nurses felt would happen this morning. When we got the results in today, my numbers amazingly had jumped all the way to 76.5 and the so the harvest began!!! 

The harvest was a very easy process as well. My ash-split was this time hooked up to the large machine in the picture on the left. One tube of the ash-split allowed the blood to flow out of my body and into the machine where it was spun around and filtered. The stem-cells were then separated and placed into a bag while the red blood cells and platelets were returned to my body through the other tube in my ash-split. (They actually removed and replaced the equivalent of all of the blood in my body four times). It is the stem-cells that they want to keep because this is where the bone marrow that will later be put back into me during the transplant is located. According to the nurses that were helping me today, my harvest went extremely well. Attached to the machine there is a small chart with the different colors that the stem-cells can look like as they are filtered and put into the bag. If the coloring is too light or too dark they have to make adjustments to the machine and either speed it up or slow it down until it is corrected. Luckily my stem-cells came out perfect the entire four hours that I was hooked up to the machine and not one adjustment had to be made! 

As I was just finishing up this posting I received a phone call from my bone marrow transplant coordinator Chris and he informed me that during todays harvest they were able to get enough stem-cells for three transplants!  It normally takes about two to three days for them to collect enough for two transplants, which is their goal, and I was able to give them enough for three in one sitting!!! This means that I finally have a week long break before I have to return to the hospital, the first break in quite awhile!!! 

The picture below shows the blood being taken out of my body from the tube with the red clip and being returned through the tube with the blue clip...

This is a closer picture of the harvesting machine. It is a pretty amazing machine and whomever invented it was a real genius. It is able to run algorithms based on your body height and weight along with the labs results of your current blood counts and determine the exact rate at which it needs to filter your blood in order to get the stem-cells out in the best condition. You can also see my stem-cells filling the bag hanging on the right above the machine...

Pain, Pepper and Paintings

Had my ash-split catheter implanted on Tuesday. The procedure was pretty quick although I had to ask them for more pain killers part way through because I could feel everything that was going on. Thanks to Sally I was able to get the VIP service for my procedure, thank you again! The ash-split has been a little hard to get used to since there are now two tubes coming out of my chest, but I am starting to forget that it is there...

I have been feeling much better this week and am finally eating three meals a day, first time in a long time! Hopefully I can gain a little weight back before I get admitted into the hospital and am forced to eat the food there...

Been going to the hospital everyday to have blood drawn and get my shots to boost my white blood cell counts. What they are looking for is my white blood cells to hit a low plateau and then begin to come back up. Once this happens they will be able to harvest my bone marrow for the transplant. They were hoping that my numbers would be heading back up by today but unfortunately they are still on the decline so it will be a few more days before anything else can be done.

Jim thought that I should put a close up of what the ash-split looks like. Pretty crazy stuff but it is only temporary and if it is needed to get me better than I will suck it up and live with it.... Sorry if this grosses anyone out!

Made it to the Pepper and Slightly Stoopid concert yesterday! Was very happy to be able to get out of the house and see some bands that I really like here in Mesa. I went with Joanna and her friend Angelica, unfortunately Brooke had to work! We got there without tickets only to find out that it was sold out but after asking for extra tickets outside we finally were able to bribe a security guard to let us in the back gate. Actually we lucked out because he charged us less than the ticket value!!! Below are some more pics from the concert:

 Joanna, Angelica and I

 Slightly Stoopid "live and direct"

Finally, but certainly not least I received this painting in the mail the other day from my cousin Dallas' eight year old daughter Regan. She painted it for me to help brighten my day and it did just that. Thank you very much Regan, I love it very much and have it up in my room here in AZ. I will be sure to take it back to Hawaii and put it up at home when I get there!!!