Ha! Dr.s should learn to trust instincts!

Alright well J did not go to therapy on Tuesday or on Thursday. I did however take him to the Stem Cell clinic on Thursday to see the Dr. Nieto because a week later he was still having diarrhea and vomitting. Well we dropped off a "sample", Dr.Nieto said that this was still part of the stomach flu he contracted from Roo and myself. I was like really 7 days later, shouldnt he have fought this off by now or at least showed some sort of improvement? He said no, for J to drink, and eat as he could, Im like thats the problem he cant! Anyways they sent us home, and told us to bring up another "sample" on Friday. Well Friday comes along and I get a call from them that his other sample came back positive for C. Diff. Yes that is shortened for some complicated to pronounce thing that is basically an infection of his intestinal tract due to antibiotics. He did have this in the hospital and apparently if you have had it once your are prone to relapse. So they called him in another antibiotic(kind of funny) to get rid of it. Jason has started eating a little bit and drinking a lot better. SO there it was more than just the virus and even if it wasnt no one should go 7 days with eating next to nothing and drinking next to nothing. We go to physical therapy 3 days next week and then of course an appointment on a totally different day so we will be up there four days next week. Oh well. We were planning on going to Austin this weekend but that got pushed back because of J feeling poorly so we will try again for this coming weekend! Just a little update Prayers Welcomed, Kimmy

Title here!

Alright so I came down with some random stomach virus on Thursday of last week and was over it Friday with some lingering effects, Jason got on Friday,Roo got it Saturday night and was right as rain on Sunday. Jason not so lucky. He has been dealing with it ever since and finally decided to take him to the ER on Monday. After test it came back as just the same virus, they did push 2 liters of fluid through him and gave him more nausea meds. We are just waiting to see, all of his blood work came back fine, and the good news is that his LDH (a non descript tumor marker but the only one that showed up last time) is in the normal acceptable range for the first time since March of 2010!!!! This is pretty exciting. As of February 8th Jason will be in Remission for 4 months which is the same amount of time that his recurrence happened last year. For both of us it is nerve wracking and its like if we can just pass this point we can breathe alittl easier. Jason did not go to physical therapy today but we will be going on Thursday. Thats about all I have for now. Prayers Welcome! Kimmy

PT is on!

On Tuesday after be woken up at 10am by the phone. Our little alarm clock i.e. Ronan, did not wake up at his customary 7:30. I had to hurry and get Ronan, Jason, and myself ready for J's dr. appointments. As an aside I am so sorry Mom's group for bailing! Mimi and Pop came and picked up Roo and J and I headed to MDAnderson. First we had his evaluation with Physical therapy. They wanted to know what Jason's goals were and we said walking without a walker, much better balance, being able to walk up stairs, and working on his drop foot issues (ankle weakness that cause him not to be able to keep his feet inline with his leg). They said okay and did some strenght test, sit to stand test, and endurance test. Basically theses are just starting off points. We set up appointments for the next two weeks, we will go for a month, then re-evaluate and then go from there. We did have a few issues with his pulse rate which sky rocketed and his oxygen levels which dipped pretty significantly. We are attributing this to him just getting over the bronchitis. They do as a precaution have him on oxygen as he is doing activities. He left feeling pretty good about himself but extremely tired. We then went to see chronic pain management and got refills for his pain meds and set up an appointment for next month to see if any adjusting needs to happen. On the whole other than it taking FOREVER, it was a pretty successful day. Oh another happy note, Ronan went to the bathroom on the potty!!!!! Of course he hasnt since, but its a start. We are doing pretty well, just trying to get the house cleaned up and organized, kind of early spring cleaning. Thats about all that is going on for now. We are headed up to Austin at the end of this month for a few days to help my Nana celebrate her birthday. We go back to see Dr. Nieto on the 4th of February. Prayers Welcomed! Kimmy

Good report then a trip to the Er....

Last Tuesday we met up with Dr. Nieto (stem cell Doc) for the first time since J was sent home from the hospital. The good news is J is still in Remission, his blood counts look great, but his liver is apparently damaged. Not as in he needs a transplant or anything, hopefully it is something that will heal itself over time. The great thing was that J did not use a wheelchair at this visit. HE WALKED everywhere. Of course he was insanely tired afterward but he walked. He then started running a slight fever on Wednesday night but it did not go high enough for us to take him to the Dr. Then there was no fever on Thurday, but last night it got up to 100.8F which means a trip to the Er for us. We went and got in really quickly, they did blood cultures, an chest xray, and a nasal flush thing. All signs point to a virus but they are sending him home on anitibiotics just in case. He was also a bit dehydrated they had a crazy time getting blood from him and his veins are okay still Ive stuck them! He is tired and is resting. I am going to email Dr. Nieto assistant on Monday and see if we need to come in this week for a follow up or not. Thats all that is happening in our neck of the woods. Never a dull moment in this househould! Prayers Welcomed! Kimmy

Happy New Year!!!! 1-1-11

We hope that everyone had a fantastic New Year's Eve and will continue to have a wonder New Years. We had a good evening of fireworks, sparkling grape juice, and champagne with our lovely neighbors! The kiddos had a good time, Ronan escaped with a scraped forehead, nose, and lip. Oh well, thats boys for you.
We went to see the nurses on Thursday and Jason has officially graduated from the fast track part of transplant!!! They did a fantastic job of keeping up with his blood counts and getting appointments scheduled for us for the future. His blood counts are doing great still. His white blood cell count is a little high but we are attributing that to him still being on steriods. When we see Dr. Nieto we will start weaning him off of them. That will be the first time he has not taken them since March of last year! Jason is feeling really good and he is walking with the walker next week we should be getting in to see Physical therapy so he will improve even faster!
Its amazing how great it feels to finally be able to plan things for our future. Obviously we dont know what it holds but its good to be able to say " We should go on a mini trip in March dont you think?" It will be three years in February that we have been able to plan something like that.

We are being cautiously optimistic about these transplants. Everything points to this finally eliminating the Cancer we just dont want to go overboard. Im sure you all can understand. J says that he has a good feeling about this time so I will take that. Again thank you everyone for all the support you showed to our family last year! Hopefully we will be able to return the favor this year!
Happy New Years! Love, Jason, Kimberly, and Ronan