A Visit With Grandpa

We were able to go visit grandpa on Sunday evening. While Shon and I sat and talked with him, Grammie was nice enough to sit with the kids and read and adoralbe book to them. She and grandpa had recored the words in the built-in-recorder so it can be read over and over again to the little ones that miss them so much!

Then grandpa got all dressed up in his "safty gear" and came to the wondow and said hello to the kids. It was wonderful and we all LOVED it!

OH HAPPY DAY

This morning the nurse brought in a big smile with her piece of paper. Big circles rounded the numbers and on the side it said "Love, Lisa and Tammy." Lisa has been the night nurse and Tammy, the day. Circled were Jim's counts today; Platelets 72; Hematocrit 28; Neutrophils 500; monocites 10. So when the Dr. came in, she made it official--the counts say Jim is engrafting.

The pneumonia has continued to improve and no fevers since last Monday morning. Dr. Asch says they will begin taking him off one antibiotic at a time and that by Tues (Wed, if you know how they work around here) if all continues to go well we will be on our way home.

Jim continues to experience a great deal of pain in his bones as the marrow does "its thing." We are so grateful for all the many prayers that ascend daily to our Father in Heaven in his behalf.

A Grateful Day

I had the oppor-tunity to go for a walk up (and I do mean UP) in the Avenues on Wednesday. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining as I walked and walked and walked some more. I walked up and around the old Primary Children's Hospital and then down and around and as I looked up I could see the flags waving beside the State Capitol Building. I walked over and started down a path into Memory Grove and there reaching up above the treetops were the spires of the Salt Lake Temple. I stopped and took a moment thinking about what a wonderful country we live in --a country blessed with the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the New and Everlasting Covenant. We live in a place that we can walk or drive and within minutes be within the walls of the sacred Temple. Sure, at times we get frustrated with government issues, but we live in the promised land! With all the problems of our medical systems and programs--they still aren't socialized medicine! If we lived in another country it is likely that we would not be experiencing the joys and blessings that we are today with Jim's transplant due to his age and the challenges he has faced and overcome along the way. In those places, the government chooses who will get treament, when they will get it and who will give it to them.

Today is Friday and Jim is doing very well. He has had no fever since Monday Morning and his chest x-rays have improved and his need for oxygen has almost totally disappeared. His counts are beginning to come up which is a great sign of engraftment. JIm's platelets are 64 and his crit is staying up there too. His neutrophils are up 100 from yesterday and his bones are really hurting; though it is very uncomfortable, it is a great sign that his marrow is doing what it is supposed to!!

Tender Mercies

Last night when I checked Jim's temperature, I was less-than-happy to see the results. He had a bit of a fever, so per the rules, we called transplant. They called us back and told us to come up. By the time we got up to the 8th floor and put in a room, his temp was normal. They took blood cultures, vitals, called the PA, called the Dr. and told us to wait while they ran the blood. It all looked acceptable and so they gave us the choice to stay or go. Hmmm, which do you think we chose? We arrived back home around 2am.

We had to be back up to the clinic this morning at 9 for more platelets and a few tests in radiology which brings me to what this post is really about.

This is our angel, Tarra. Tarra has been helping us for months now. Tarra came up to IMC in the middle of the night when no one could seem to find a vein for an iv (after seven tries I might add) She accomplished the iv in one try. She put in both of Jim's picc lines, one of which she did when his platelet count was 3. For three months Tarra came over every single night to give Jim his neupogen shot. She came during blizzards, came after she had worked until all hours of the night and came and changed his picc line dressings on a regular basis and on call if they needed attention. She changed her work schedule to be where we were when we had imaging tests and made sure we had the very best people for each proceedure Jim needed.

Today was no exception. Tarra never lets Jim sit in the waiting room. She brought him back and let him lay down and rest and then when he needed the ultrasound, she had them come right to us and do the imaging. Today when he was particularly exhausted, it was such a blessing. I believe that it was President Kimball who said that most of the time it is through another person that the Lord is able to meet out needs; certainly he has met our needs through the heart and hands and help of Tarra.

FEBRUARY 4th;THEY CALL IT HIS NEW BIRTHDAY

Jim with Fred while he was donating stem cells

Apheresis Machine; removes stem cells and returns the rest

Making sure its the right donor and the right recipient

Rachel hanging the stem cells

Stem Cells

A beautiful sight

Fred and Jim during the transplant

Fred and Donna

I am having a hard time writing about this experience. It has been such a long ride to get here, and once here, it has been almost a sacred occasion. Jim's younger brother Fred, who was his donor, came up on Sunday night. Fred had to go to the bone marrow clinic for three days and have injections of filgrastin to increase his stem cell production and to move the cells into his blood. A challenging few days for Fred--lots of pain, and feeling like he had a sever case of the flu. On Thursday they put a tri-fusion line in Fred's neck, which was also a less-than-pleasant experience. Then the apheresis began. Jim and I were there with Fred and Donna and it was a very emotional time for all of us. The clinic said that they wanted between five and ten million stem cells and over the course of two days, over eleven million were harvested from Fred.

Friday morning Jim was given whole body radiation and then taken to the clinic to wait for the cells to be counted and returned to the hospital. During the time he was resting in the clinic he spiked a high fever and set lots of Docs, PAs and Nurses in motion; within an hour he was admitted to the hospital again. They gave him antibiotics, and the pre-transplant regimen of medications and by the time the stem cells arrived back at the hospital he was fever-free.

The four of us together again waited as they carefully checked the cells and set them up for infusion and began the process which only took about 45 minutes as all eleven million stem cells were given to Jim. Words cannot express the tenderness and gratitude we all feel for gift that Fred has so willingly given.

So now we wait for engraftment which happens somewhere around twenty-one days. Jim never had a fever again and none of the cultures grew anything, so we are pretty sure the fever came from the radation process. He was released from the hospital today and we are so happy to be home. We are grateful for our overabundance of blessings. We acknowledge the Lord's hand in the entire process and send heart-felt thank yous for all the prayers rendered in our behalf.

WE'RE HOME

Well, Jim's platelets cooperated. After coming off continuous infusions to get the count up to 62, they then went to 65 and after twelve hours were still at 58 so the docs said he could come home if we would come to the clinic every day. (Not a big sacrifice since we were coming every day except Thurs anyway, and who cares if you can sleep in your own bed!)

So, one more day of chemo, then Friday is radiation and the infusion of the cells. What a miracle this whole process has been. He is feeling quite well actually. He came directly in the house, crawled into his bed and promptly took a nap for two hours, totally uninterrupted.

Will try to make brief updates frequently. Oh, his galactomannan is now .09 which means he is officially negative for fungal infection. Much love to all.