Day Five!!

Last night Don had test to determine if he did indeed still have a blood clot and would have to have his cvc cathetur relocated. Unfortunately he did. It wasn't a pleasant experience, they did have a hard time surgically placing it. He has some pain, but they have him on pain med's. Today they will resume his chemo and I am sure he will be sore from the experience last night. He has had so many small surgeries on that area!! They tell us this should not change his schedule in any way. They are also giving him shots in his stomach with blood thinner to break up the clot.
His mother has back surgery today in Alexandria, please remember Dorothy in your prayers. Also last night our neighbors Kevin and Peggy Kessler came to our room at MDA. Kevin is having back surgery today at Texas Orthapedic here in Houston. They will be here for a week, and possible Peggy will be my roomate at the hotel. Nice to have company!!
Lots of folks need prayers. You prayer warriors keep it up. Love you and appreciate you all sooooo much!
Blessings,
Don and Kathi

We have hit a bump in the road!

Well folks,
Chemo number two went very well, still no nausea. But today they have found out he has a blood clot just above his CVC Cathetur. They could not get any blood return from the cathetur, and his left arm has swollen. Tomorrow they are going to do a test on him to determine if they need to remove his CVC and surgically replace it on the right side of his chest. He hates that. He has had it removed once already and then it was placed too close to his heart, so they had to pull it out a small amount. All this surgery on his cathetur area isn't fun, and causes some pain. It is also delaying his schedule, and we hope this doesn't mean our DAY 0 will be on Friday instead of Thursday.
Through it all he has kept such a good attitude. He has all the nurses remembering his name the way he teases them all...LOL. He will be having his chemo all through the night now, because of all the worry about his cathetur. No sleep for him!!
Please pray his test shows the blood clot is gone and his blood flow is normal, and they won't have to remove his CVC.
We talked to his brother Kim tonight, good hearing from him. Our kids and grandkids were such a joy to have here if only for one day...we love them so. They really cheered up Paw Paw and MeMe got lots of hugs. We needed that. It is kinda quiet around here now though....too quiet.
Thanks for all the prayers and S.S.class, thanks for wearing those ribbons and the special prayers during class as well.
We love all of you,
Don and Kathi

Day ONE of six Mega Chemo's

Today Don had his first day of the strong chemo drugs to kill his remaining stem cell's. He actually did very well. He did not get sick at all!! Must be all those prayers your sending up on his behalf. PLEASE...DONT STOP!! Tomorrow he will be recieving a combination of drugs. One he has had before, and one new one. I pray all days go as well as today, however we know he will start feeling very weak soon. Tonight they let him go to the "park" on the second floor. The "park" is an area of the hospital that we love the most. It is an open large area full of palm tree's and plant's. In the day time you can hear the piano player playing from an area near by. A very relaxing atmosphere. We love to just sit in the wicker chairs and have a change of scenery. He only got to sit there about an hour, and we know it will be his last day for about three weeks! I told him let's enjoy this while we can. We are trying to get a room on the 11th floor. It is the stem cell transplant floor.....but we have been admitted to the 9th floor because there was no vacancy on 11. On the 9th floor there is no room for a couch or bed for me to stay with him. Tonight thank the good Lord he is o.k. and doesn't need me to stay.
Also our daughter and grandkids are coming tonight!! HURRAY!! We can't wait to see them. Paw Paw will love having them to brighten his day tomorrow. And MeMe really needs a hug!!
We will write again soon,
Blessings,
Kathi

We are headed to step THREE!!!!

O.k...all you prayer warriors...its your time to pray really hard!!! We saw Dr. Nieto today and we are being admitted tonight! Tomorrow Don will start his MEGA chemo. It is called B.E.A.M. BCNU Carmustine, Etoposide, Ara-C Cytarabine, and Melphalan. On Friday he will be recieving the Carmustine. Then days 24-27 he will be recieving the Etoposide and Cytarabine. On Wed. the 28 he will recieve the Melphalan and then THURSDAY the 29th is STEM CELL TRANSPLANT DAY!!!!
Around here that day is called day 0. You count from there to 30. Your immune system becomes that of a little baby on day 0. Don will actually have to have all his baby shots all over again...LOL. I told him he could go with our little grand daughter when she has her's...HA!!
We noticed on his schedule that he will be having six not five days of chemo. And there is no two days of rest. I am not sure why his schedule is different from those of others we spoke to.
This is the step we have been a little scared of. I ask that you all pray for Don to have only minimal (IF NONE!) nausea or side effects. Also please pray for NO infections of any kind or complications. And for ME to be a brave "ROCK."
We will try and keep the blog current, but it may be a little difficult during this week. If I can't get to our laptop my son, Brandon, will be updating for us.
Thanks to all for your prayers, we really need them now.
Much love and Blessings to all of you,
Don and Kathi

Just Waiting......

We are in waiting. Our doctor has been in Spain! He just returned back to work today, and our nurse said for us to just hang in there. We have no appointments, no instructions. Don and I want to get this show on the road. Don is very anxious to start step three. Yesterday he had his new C.V.C. line put in, this one is much more comfortable, and he slept well.
Robin, Scott and girls are suppose to come to Houston to see us this weekend. We have missed them so much, it will be good to see them. We don't know if Don will be in the hospital at the time, but we will work around that. If we get step three behind us, the sooner we come home for good.
Our friend Wayne came to see us and we went out to eat. It was good seeing him again. Then today our friend Robert called us. So good to hear his voice. I think he and Don have planned a golfing trip as soon as we get back home. Or maybe some fishing. I told Don that after we get home, he can fish or golf all he wants!! I think he is going to hold me up to that!! HA!
We will let you all know when we hear from our doctor.
Blessings,
Kathi

I don't know how he does it!!!

Well...folks your prayers are working. I know it is HIM working right now. Don went into Aphersis last night to harvest and we were there until 9:15 p.m. Don jokingly said here I gave you about 7 million tonight, when the nurse came to take the bag away....hehe. I said, "I wish!" They told us they only needed 5 million all together. Most people take days to perform this. He returned today to donate again, and guess what!! I can't believe this guy, but they just told him his count from last night was 7.2 MILLION!!!! I am amazed! They sent him back to the hotel and said...that's enough. Now we are waiting on instructions to move onto step three. I am shocked that Don managed to finish harvesting in only ONE DAY!!!!
Your prayers are doing wonders, please don't stop.
Our God is AMAZING!!!!
Blessings,
Don and Kathi

IT'S TIME!!!!!

Hey all! I got an email update from Mom a couple of hours ago. I think she wanted this to be blogged but got excited that Dad was suddenly being sent off for harvesting of his Stem Cells. So I figured I would post it for her :)

Keep Praying, the hardest part of this journey is yet to come for Dad!

~Brandon

WE ARE HARVESTING!!!!  HURRAY!! This is the time all stem cell transplant patients look forward to.  We are on to step two.  Pray Don will harvest plentiful! They want 10 million cells.  One friend we made here took eight days, pray Don doesn't take that long.  God is soooo good.  Praise be to him.  Don has been so faithful in giving his self four shots of Nupregin per day...ouch!  But it worked.  We will keep you all informed of when we go to step three, hospital admitting.

Much Love,

Don and Kathi