New Cells are In

Happy Halloween

The Good new is that my mom is finally in the hospital. After all the date changes and the donor changes we are finally there. The second good news is that she got her new t-cells on Friday (October 23). So today is day 1. Good news all around and she is doing as well as one can when they are saving your life by bring you as close to death as they can without actually getting there. So lots of icky side effects, but she is handling it all very gracefully and with dignity.

James and I skype her every night. The above picture was taken via skype. For those that have no idea what I am talking about. Skype is communication system used on your computer with web cam to talk and see each other. This way she can visit with her grandchildren.(Due to the concern over the swine flu ect... the hospital has changed the visitor age limit to only those over 18 years old.) We bug her every night whether she likes it or not. The kids love to see her and have fun making faces at her. It seems good for all of us. We that is all for now.

Hope

Helford Hospital Finally

We are finally there. My mom (Pat Patton) has start her Chemo for the transplant. She start on Thursday and will get Chemo very day until Tuesday and then they will admit her. She will be admitted on Tuesday and get settled and then they start the major doses of Chemo and other medications to prepare her to receive the transplant. Then she will get her new T-cells. The day she gets her T-cells is day 0, then we count up for there until day 100. Then we celebrate her home coming.

She will be at Helford Hospital at City of Hope. She will be there through most of the major Holidays. She is allowed visitors and would love to have them. There are guidelines there to protect the patients. Please visit the link post to the right side under visitation guidelines.

She did get more good news the results of the biopsy showed that the cancer in her bones has dropped to 10% down for 90%. Yeah!!!!! So we are starting off very good.

Will write more later thank you all.

Hope

The Biopsy

So my mother is an easy drunk. She had her biopsy today and it went as well as it can with out being put under. They gave her lots of medication, it did not get rid of the pain, but made it so she did not care she was in pain, it worked okay. She is a funny drunk person. I found out today that the dates I had are wrong, some would say I heard it wrong, others would say I was told wrong, However you look at it they are wrong, So here are the new dates: She starts her transplant chemo on Friday October 16 and has it Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and then put into the hospital on Tuesday October 20th.

However we have a meeting with the doctor tomorrow, so all this can change again. Will update again soon.

Hope

So Close yet so Far

Well we are at it again. My mother's numbers are where they are suppose to be and the last time we check we still had a donor. So off we go again to try and get her new bone marrow cells. So the new dates are Tomorrow Monday the 12th she will have a bone marrow bi-opsy again. However due to time issues, she can not be put under so Owe. Then Tuesday we try again to have the Family meeting. If everything goes right, she will start the chemo on October 19th and go into the hospital on October 26th. Then for my mom the hard part starts, growing new bone marrow.

We are close now to having her cured, we just need to get her into the hospital, but we are closer now then we have been before so that is good.

Please remember that these dates can and will change with out notice. Thank you all for your continued support and love.

Hope

Good News

Good news from the doctor today. My mother's cancer numbers are down and we still have a donor. We are scheduled for October 24th but again please do not set this in stone. This is good news and we again on the right track. She still needs to have chemo and steroids but at least we are moving again.

Hope

More updates

So here is more information. The good news is that my mother is oh so graceful and falls. Her back is hurt because she fell and not because she has a tumor or any other serious concerns. The not so good news is her cancer numbers keep going up. She is still on steroids and chemo and hopefully her numbers will drop soon. My mother and father are going to City of Hope tomorrow for more blood work and more chemo. At this point not much to do but wait for her numbers to go down. As of Monday we still had the donor and they were double checking with him for the new dates, but at least he was still around. So that is all for now I will write when we know more. Take care.

Hope

The emotional Roller Coaster ride continues

Okay, I just wanted to add to want my mother wrote. So she will not be admitted into the hospital now until the Doctor and the new chemo can work it's magic. They doctor called the Donor center and asked to push the schedule back three weeks.

Her cancer numbers (the bad protein numbers) are up and her M spike which also is related to the cancer proteins are up. So the bad protein and the M spike can not be going up when she receives the transplant. It is hard to understand so I will let those of you who are interested google it. Other wise trust me in that her numbers need to be going down when she has the transplant.

So my mother got an infusion yesterday after meeting with the doctor and she will be going twice a week for three weeks for infusions. The doctor will re-evaluate her numbers to see where she is at every week. A side note, my mother fell a couple of weeks ago and re-injured her back. She informed the doctor that she is still hurting. The doctor is concerned because this is happening the same time her number are going up, so she needs to take steroids everyday until Monday. She will then go in for an MRI on her back to find out what is wrong with her back, the doctor is concerned that it may be a tumor on her spine. Which is why he put her on the steroids they will help slow or reduce the tumor if there is one.

We all believe that she hurt her self being oh so graceful, but the doctor wants to be careful at this point. Which we are all grateful for, though being on that much steroid for that long will be a challenge. But the doctor did give her strong sleeping pills which my father is thankful for.

At this point it seems it is a wait and see. So to sum up, my mother is on stronger chemo twice a week, more steroids, we need to wait for the transplant until her numbers go back down. The transplant will happen it is just a matter of when.

thank you all.