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| We had to take Hayden to Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park to introduce him to snow! This is a special place, I asked Laura to marry me here! (PS - she said “yes”). |
Hello everyone!
What a couple of weeks! I
got to meet my secondary Oncologist (Kaiser) who was very nice,
knowledgeable and patient with our hyper Hayden. All of the things
that you need in an Oncologist! I think he is going to be a nice
addition to my family of doctors and nurses who are going to save my
life!
My transplant team has
been hard at work to coordinate a second transplant for me. They did
find a bone marrow match for me. Its a 25-year old from Europe. I am so
grateful that he is generous enough to help out someone he has never
met. Unfortunately I have come down with the rhinovirus (cold) so the
transplant that was scheduled for tomorrow has been post-poned for a
couple of weeks. I also have a sinus infection, so let’s pray that I can
get strong enough very soon for the next transplant.
The good news is that I get to spend Valentines Day with Laura and Hayden! Yay!
This past week I have
been through a battery of tests to make sure its safe, including another
bone marrow biopsy, another intrathecal (chemo in the spine) as a
precautionary method, and checking every organ including kidney,
bladder, liver, lungs, and heart to make sure we are good to go.
Everything turned out good except for my lungs’ ability to transfer
oxygen to my blood. They think that this was a result of the lung
problems that I had back in November, and they don’t know if they will
get back to normal or not. But they are telling me that I am breathing
at 100%.
I am not looking forward
to going back into the hospital, but I know its what I need to do. As
many of you have already heard, my bone marrow biopsy and interthecal
came back negative for any Leukemia cells!! Yay! So I will be going
into the transplant in remission! This gives me not only a fighting
chance to beat this, but also an easier time during the pre-transplant
process. I will have only a minor dose of chemo and radiation this
time, allowing my body to accept the new cells without knocking me down
too bad. I may only have to stay in the hospital for a couple of weeks
this time, as long as the CMV virus does not come back.
There are a lot of
unknowns - as usual, but we are staying positive and we are going to get
through this one too. Why am I having another transplant if I am in
remission? Because I have an aggressive form of Leukemia that could
possibly come back if we do not hit it again. As many of you are
probably noticing, my team of doctors and nurses like to keep me ahead
of the ball instead of waiting for it to hit me in the back of the head!
Which is funny because most of the time I do feel like I am running,
running, running.
I want to thank Sheila Short for taking photos of Laura, Hayden and I (Sheila Short Photography). We really do appreciate your patience with our curious little guy!
Thank you also to
everyone who reads my blog. I know that I have not met many of you, but I
can feel your support. It is great to get all of your cards and
messages. We unfortunately have no way of adding a comment section to
this blog, so that is why we created the facebook page, www.facebook.com/jonsfight. I am also more than happy to hear from you on my email, noh@mac.com.
I will keep you updated (promise) and let you all know when my next transplant is.
And remember, Life is still good, even with a few bumps in the road!
-Jon