Daddy ~ Happy Birthday week 2/26/30

Well, now I find myself at Barnes & Noble, posting to my blog. This is an important week. But, first let me tell you why I am at B&N verses Starbucks….the Wifi is FREE! Can believe you have to pay for it at Starbucks? Plus, figuring our how to by the card, register on the ATT site and then get started……..oh my! ~too much for me. All that and then have to pay on top of it? Besides, you can always bury yourself into one of their comfortable chairs~ if you can find an empty one.

This week is important because Linda Joan comes for her round of testing on Friday. Yes, she is a match, but now they need to be sure that she doesn’t have something that can “transfer” to me…so we are praying that her blood will be CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN. As said before there will be a 10+ day waiting period while for the results. Hopefully, her harvesting will be the week of her spring break. And then her job is done!

As for me, I did have chemo last Friday, which was very important because it was the 1st day of cycle 3. Labs were ok, so I got my chemo, but my white blood cells were very low. (1.81 ) normal is 4.2 -10. This just means the chemo is killing them…but I can get shots to get it up….today, after 2 shots I was at 10.40. So things are temporarily cool there. Amazingly, my platelets were up to 83 on Friday, but down today to 71. Still a very far cry from 17. The oncologist worries at 75, transplant doctor worries at 10, and normal is 140-400, besides after transplant they fall to “zip!” (for now I would have trouble clotting, so I don’t want to do anything that would cause bleeding)…not really a big deal today. I am not total sure what all this means…but I do know that it means the chemo is working in some way to kill that sucker and get me in position for the transplant. I am so ready! I have to admit, I have been doing the thing they warn you about NOT doing too much. I have been surfing and reading chat groups….YIKES! It can put the “worry” in you. I have been listening to others in the “chemo crib” talking and you know we all are so different; I just have come full circle again. I realize that have a great God, that has placed me in the right physicians’ hands, and I have to go with what is presented by my doctors, I have to trust their brilliance and knowledge. Hesitation isn’t something I want to feel.

Many questions arise with my reoccurrence, but the most popular is “why” am I doing the donor thing verse my stem cells again, especially because it is much more of a risk. Simply put, because my reoccurrence came so quickly…verses other people that it return in 3,4, 8 years, it shows that they was something hidden, a few odd cells, and those cells mutated into something much more aggressive than the last. I could do my own cells again, but the likelihood of remission is not there, it would just be a waste I would just returned as I did before. Next question is, “why” didn’t they do the donor thing in the first place? Well, because “auto” does have very good results, and much less risk, they do that first. If it doesn’t work then they go in other directions. The direction varies due to so many factors; age, cell type, cytogenetic of the cells, physical health, how well it respond to frontline protocals, etc.etc.etc…………. The bottom line, I could wait, and just kept everything at bay, so to speak, but I don’t want to do that. That decision is a great risk in itself. I am ready to go after this and get it done!

Here is something I found that was stated from a study done in Spain 2002, its findings backs up not doing another “auto;” "We found that the complete remission rate was significantly higher in the allogeneic arm." (another words a person that had an auto and followed up with an allo verses another auto) Also, the conclusion of the study:
A dose-reduced intensity allogeneic transplant after an autologous procedure results in a significantly higher CR (complete remission) rate than a second autologous intensification.”

So long for now~ Friday will be very busy day….please pray on that day for my chemo session to be powerful and extremely aggressive toward the cancer cells, and for Joan’s testing to be easy for her, and excellent results.

Much love goes out to all of you and all the glory to God. In closing I want to give thanksgiving for my two friends Sherry who has done well with her newly diagnosis breast cancer she has only 6 weeks of radiation left and that should be it!, and to my other friend Olivia who just 2 weeks ago was told of a malignant pancreatic tumor ~ her surgery went very well. It had not spread. AMEN! High hopes for us all.

Psalm 118:17
I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.