AMAZED, THANKFUL, TEARFUL, and FULL OF JOY

It is so hard to put into words how I'm feeling right now.    Molly took Dave in to see Dr. Boehme and get his Nupogen shot and Dave's whitecount is now 6,000!!!    Dr. Boehme told Dave to get on with his life - enjoy!!!   Dr. Boehme has gone over Dave's PET scan with other oncologists, specialists, etc. and they see no sign of lymphoma anywhere!!!!    No more shots to bring up his whitecount.  Looks like I'll be trying him fatten that "big boy" up!   Now, I've got a mission!    

Whatever tomorrow brings, we will enjoy today!!! 

HOME AGAIN

He's home, tucked snuggly in our bed!    More good news is that his whitecount was at 2,000 this morning, a good sign that's for sure. There will be daily trips to the doc's office for continued Nupogen shots for awhile, but I'm not sure how long they will continue those.   Besides being weak and tired he says he's feeling pretty good.    As for me and the dogs, we are as happy as can be. 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GOOD STUFF

PET SCAN RESULTS: No active lymphoma is seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW - does that blow a person away or what??? We will focus on that amazing news and celebrate each day.



One more hurdle to cross -- Dave is still in the hospital and, hopefully, prayerfully (is that a word?), he will be home tomorrow. The issue of concern is his bone marrow is not producing the white blood cells as fast as we had hoped. After being on injections for a week to bring up his whitecount, it just isn't happening the "normal" way. Things are slow. A normal whitecount is 8,000 and Dave's was down to 700 on admittance to the hospital. That means his immune system was just about as low as it gets. How he didn't catch every little "bug" that floats around is a surprise to all of us. Today, his whitecount was around 1100. That's a nice jump from the 800 yesterday, but not out of the woods yet. Dr. Boehme did a bone marrow biopsy this afternoon (with D.J. assisting - well maybe not assisting, but he was in the room nevertheless)! The results of the biopsy won't be back for 2-3 weeks, so pray, pray, pray. He will continue to have daily injections of the Nupogen to keep those little cells multiplying. He is now in normal sinus rhythm, great bloodpressure, and no temperature spikes. Yipee!



Thanks goes to our children - Molly who is always on top of things and keeps us all on our toes and who always, despite the day, makes sure Dave and I get a little bit of sunshine from Stella and Sully. They truly do make us smile. Of course, so does she. Thanks too for D.J. for always being here when we need him the most - he has such a cool head and a calming affect when we need it the most. Thanks to Rachel and Eric and all of our grandchildren (sounds like a soap opera), as we can feel your love from a distance. And, thank you to Richard (Dave's brother) for coming over and plowing me out so I could get to the hospital. And thank you to our good friends, Orland and Jan Leland - they have been there through thick and thin. Orland even came over and let the dogs out today for me!!! Thanks also to everyone who has called or in some way passed on a message of love and concern to both Dave and I. I can't even begin to list you all and I certainly wouldn't want to miss anyone out. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I will keep everyone updated (I promise) and maybe even a few pictures. Of course, especially thank you God for sustaining us and giving us strength to carry on.

GET WELL, PLEASE!!!!!

I'm a little bit guilty for not doing a good job on posting, but not really sure if anyone reads it anymore. I'm also addicted to Facebook, so I post a lot on there. Anyway, it's been quite a battle with Dave since his radiation. He just hasn't felt well at all, although he puts on a good front. He hasn't had much appetite and is weak and nauseated most of the time. I called D.J. to come down Thurs. night (just on a whim) and it ended up being a good thing. By 12:30 p.m. we called the ambulance to transport Dave as he was so weak, vomiting, and feverish that we couldn't transport him to the ER by ourselves. He was very dehydrated (although he had 2 bags of fluids at the oncologist's office earlier in the day) and his BP was extremely low. He was admitted and is in the hospital but doing much better. He's doing really well, but still runs a low-grade fever and his BP drops when he stands so they don't want to release him yet. They have started him a few different antibiotics to cover all bases. Lungs are clear, urine is okay (don't tell him I said that), and his blood cultures have shown no growth. They are giving him a unit of blood today as he is somewhat anemic. Of course, as usual, I'm trying to stuff food down his throat, but he isn't having anything to do with that. Sometimes I just don't know what else to do. I always remember "you have to feed a fire", right?

I'm very thankful we are living in Kalispell now as it makes it much easier for us. Dave's brother, Richard, came over first thing this morning and plowed me out so I could go to the hospital. THANK YOU, RICHARD!!! Will keep an update. (you can always be my friend on Facebook too!