The Road Set Before Me

Written by Dawn. Happy to say that yesterday's treatment was uneventful. I've learned through this journey that ho-hum is good - well at least for how treatments go!! I have to take an antihistamine and 3 Tylenols prior to my immunotherapy, so I end up falling asleep after we get home. Other than tiredness, side effects are minimal with some aches and pains, and sometimes a bit of nausea. My immunotherapy is nothing like chemotherapy.  It seemed a long time since my last treatment again but it was only a bit over a month - July 28 and today. I guess the summer busyness, my birthday celebrations and also a week of camping snuck in there made it feel longer. Either way, it has been an enjoyable August for me and I thank God for that!  Birthday thank you notes have kept me busy and I've completed 2/3 now. My birthday flowers are now reduced to one multi bouquet and I've got a plate of seeds drying out. I'm hoping to plant a birthday garden with the seeds next spring! ...

Today Mom had her labs done, and then she and Dad went to her appointment with Dr. A. This was Mom’s first time seeing him after the stem cell retrieval and it was nice to hear that Dr. A was happy with the stem cell retrieval results. He also said that he isn’t too concerned about her bloodwork results rising, especially since Mom is feeling good. He said they will continue to monitor her blood work and assess it every month. Last week we celebrated Mom’s 60th birthday! We celebrated as a family on the holiday Monday and told her about the open house we had planned for her on the following Saturday. She sure was surprised!  We kids knew we would have to tell her beforehand, but we didn’t want to tell her too early, or she might start stressing over the party. I think it worked out well to tell her when we did, and she was SO excited to have a party! She even said that she just couldn’t wait to chat with everyone! THANK YOU to everyone who stopped in to wish her a happy birthday! I...

Mom, Dad, and I were all just talking about how long it feels like it's been since Mom last had an infusion! Shockingly, it’s actually only one week later than she normally would have had it, but it feels like a long time since her last one. I guess the stem cell retrieval process felt like it took a long time, but in reality it was only two days!  Mom has been recovering well from the retrieval. She was a little tired for a bit afterwards, and she had to be careful with her neck where they had inserted the retrieval catheter, but thankfully that has healed very well! The wound and bruising are actually almost completely gone. Today Mom had her immunotherapy infusion. Dad went with her to this appointment again, which was great! At this point, I think his favourite part of these appointments is getting a new book to read from the little book-sharing library in the hospital waiting room! That was a 10/10 addition to the waiting room.  The infusion went well and was (thankfully)...

Well, the stem cell retrieval is over! The whole process took two days in total because they didn’t collect as many stem cells on the first day as they had hoped.  The retrieval setup.  Starting Sunday, Mom (and Dad) went to a clinic daily for a nurse to give her shots to stimulate her body to produce more stem cells. Then yesterday was retrieval day! Mom and Dad arrived at the hospital at 8 am, and they right away prepped Mom for the catheter insertion in her neck at 9 am. By 11 am they had her completely hooked up to the retrieval machine and the process of retrieving the stem cells began. All went well with the retrieval. Mom mostly slept or rested during the whole process.  On Thursday, they were only able to collect 1.3M stem cells, so this meant that Mom would have to stay the night and they would try to collect the remaining amount needed the following day. After a little while of shuffling around from bed to bed, they finally found a bed for her to stay in for the...

Hello everyone. It's Dawn writing, but of course the girls will edit as well. In recent years even just one outing a week can feel like a lot, but getting out and about is good for me to do. Last week felt quite busy for me.  I was able to attend church on Sunday, which was lovely. My week feels much longer without worshiping the Lord with our church family.  On Monday, I went for some extensive lab work in preparation for the stem cell retrieval. Canada Health requires that a person be tested for a myriad, (38, actually!), of different infectious diseases prior to a blood retrieval. This is both for information purposes and for potential infectious disease protection for those working on the blood. 12 vials were taken for testing. One test didn't come back, so I have to get that retested. Another test showed that my ferritin is too low, and an iron infusion is scheduled for this week as well.  After the labwork on Monday, Andrew came with me to meet with our transplant c...

Last week we enjoyed a nice (but cold!) week camping, which was a relaxing break from the flow of work and appointments.  This week has us back to reality, with labs on Monday morning and an appointment with Dr. A in the afternoon. Mom felt pretty good after she and Dad talked to the doctor and were able to discuss the stem cell collection process plans. Dr. A says he is happy with Mom’s bloodwork results that had come in at the time of the appointment. He also said that although the Lambda cells are increasing, they are still within “normal range” and aren’t increasing exponentially. His plan is to collect the stem cells from Mom while she’s pretty healthy and cryo-freeze them for the future if a transplant is needed.  He reassured Mom that this procedure is fairly straightforward and not painful. Mom is nervous about the catheter that will be put into her neck for the retrieval procedure. The doctor assured her that if she needs it, he can prescribe meds to lessen her anxiet...