Home again!

I was sprung yesterday! And spring had sprung as well in my month in. I had to change rooms to a double for the last day, followed by an almost sleepless night - the last endurance test of this hospital stay. Home is less of a shock this time, and I am stronger, appendectomy and all. I really hope to be feeling good in about a week. I still wasn't making platelets when I left, but get to just go to my local hospital to be tested and transfused if necessary. Next Monday I will go to UCSF clinic, starting, unfortunately regular treks down there. As soon as my blood counts are normal they will do another bone biopsy, and this will establish whether I am officially in remission. I think I am, and most hopefully will need no more chemo until the stem cell transplant. As for that, tomorrow I think they will have the insurance OK to begin to contanct the 4-5 possible matches that the registry yielded on first pass. It could be as little as a month until I am in again, for the transplant.

I have been frightened of the stem cell transplant, but was very inspired to hear that a 74 year old man was going home the same day as me - 2 1/2 weeks! after his stem cell transplant.

I see Dennis's last post he spoke again of the importance of everyone's support, and he always speaks the matters of the heart better than I can. But I will tell you that virtually every card I received brought tears to my eyes.

Well, Lucy just arrived, not in school as she should be - she swears her grades are not suffering from her frequent absences. She was accepted at all the colleges she applied to, and will go to UC Santa Cruz in the fall. I will be glad to have her nearby.

Much love and gratitude to you all,
Anne

Homeward Bound

Anne called me at work yesterday in the late morning with great news. Dr. Wolfe had just met with her and said her white count was climbing ( it was six on the latest blood work) so he thought she could go home by Monday. He even said, maybe this weekend, but it doesn't seem likely since she needs to get off all the antibiotics. This past week has been a mixed bag for Anne with some moments of feeling more herself, then back to those feverish bouts of nausea. But now things seem to be settling down more consistently so we are ready to make a break for it. As Steve noted in his comment Anne is receiving IV nutrition, liquid steak and potatoes directly into the veins. That should be finishing today as she starts eating regular meals. She is still a bit sore from the surgery but that seems to have healed nicely and is no longer a concern.

When I asked Anne last night if she wanted to write something for the blog so I could enter it for her she said her thoughts were too scattered at that moment. She has talked constantly about the outpouring of love she has received and how life changing it has been for her. This entire experience has certainly created a bond between she and I that could probably only come with many years of sharing. We are both so grateful for the incredible support that has been given and sustained over these past few months.

Namaste

Dennis

Never a Dull Moment

Yesterday afternoon at work, I got a message to call Anne. I figured she needed me to bring some thing to eat for that evening. When I called she said " I have appendicitis . They are going to operate tonight "..... "I'm on my way". I arrived at 6:00. She looked scared but managed to make a joke about it all. We ended up waiting about 3 hours before they took her down to surgery. We met with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. Both were seasoned veterans. Anne seemed comfortable with their description of the procedure and their competence. Surgery began around 10:20 and was completed just before midnight. It turned out to be a more difficult then the usual, as they call it, "lap appy ". The appendix had adhered itself to the colon and they spent along time trying to find it. She returned to the room at 2:30 awake and feeling pretty good, mostly from the drugs that were floating around in her system. The rest of the night went well and in the morning she was sore but OK. There was still some fever which the doctor said was part of the post-op picture.

I am now fast forwarding to today Sunday as I didn't get to finish this post yesterday. I had to get back to the hospital because Anne was feeling worse. Her temperature spiked and the nausea returned. She was unable to eat much and was in some ways just plain fed up with her circumstance. I guess the hard part is that she had been doing so well this round with a very positive result. Now this...
I spent the night. She had some chills and spikes but did manage to sleep . The resident, Dr. Chen, was in this morning to say they were keeping an eye on her blood work which so far was good. She said they may do a CT scan of the abdomen for possible fluid collection which could cause the fevers. I just called the hospital and spoke to Nancy, Anne was sleeping. Dr. Wolfe had been in and so far the blood work is OK so they are waiting to see if the antibiotics will do the job. If she does have fluid collection or abscess then she will have to have it surgically drained.

That's all there is for now. As always your prayers and thoughts are much needed and appreciated. I'll try to post again tonight.

Love to All

Dennis

P.S. Anne just called (12:45 ) to say she thinks the fever has broken. She was in a big sweat and is now a little above normal and feeling better.

GREAT NEWS

I'm rushing off to see Anne at the hospital but wanted to let everyone know that her bone marrow biopsy showed "0"... that's right zero cancer cells. Can you believe it? She is in remission. I don't think this means that there is no more cancer but quite frankly, I believe the Mylotarg got it all. What next? We'll have to explore all the possibilities. That's it for now. I'll put new info on the blog as quickly as I can.

Dennis

The longest yard

Anne has had a pretty steady and gentler physical course this time around which makes waiting for results probably the most painful part of the process. You can't take a pill for it and we don't have a fast forward button, so we just wait. While I'm glad she is feeling so much better this time, the physical issues last round dominated her awareness and required constant an immediate attention. She didn't have the time or the energy to miss being outdoors. She has and continues to face all of this with incredible grace and dignity. She is admired by the staff and has befriended the other patients and their families. But it is this endless waiting that is so difficult. In someways she needs our support more now then ever, even with her feeling so much better then last time. A note, a card, a poem, or photo and of course prayers will go a long way to get her through this period. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to get to the blog more often. It's been hard to get to the computer. I would encourage anyone to jump in and add a post even if it's about a brief encounter with Anne on the phone. She is beginning to use the phone some. She's been wanting to place a post herself but has had problems trying to use the computer at the hospital. Hopefully we'll get her on in the next couple of days.

A brief medical update: She will be getting a bone marrow test tomorrow to assess the percentage of healthy tissue versus the non healthy. And, sometime in this week we should have the results of Steve's match kit.

Love to All

Dennis

Still doing OK

I believe that, besides Anne's shear will to move through this gracefully, the wealth of prayers she is receiving has made her experience this round much gentler. At least so far. We spent a wonderful Sunday afternoon together and even were able to snuggle some, making sure we didn't foul up her IV lines. Anne is having some bouts of nausea but nothing like last time. She is highly in tune with the subtle changes in her body and has become masterful at timing the different medications to control her reactions. This is not to say that she is home free. Things may change as the chemo is just starting to do its work. Tonight she got the last dose and we cheered. With prayer and good med management maybe the next few weeks will go smoothly with a minimum of discomfort and her nemesis, nausea, which she hated most. Right now she has vitality and is able to get around in her room and into the halls. So we can only hope it will continue that way. There is really no information at this time regarding the effects/results of the therapy. We'll know more in the next few weeks.

Steven returned the test kit to UCSF that will determine if he is a compatible marrow donor for Anne. It is her hope that he will turn out to be a match but we won't know until the end of this week or the beginning of next. Fortunately her chromosome type is fairly common according to Dr. Damon and it shouldn't be to difficult to find a match in the donor pool should Steven not work out.

Anne is feeling all the love and prayers coming her way and speaks of it with deep gratitude.
She is spending her days in reflection of this whole process which she will share, I'm sure, as she gets past the phase of the therapy.

Much Love to All,

Dennis

So Far So Good

We are now into day 3 of the chemo. Anne got the Mylotarg on Tuesday and she said she felt a bit of bone pain in her pelvis while the I V was running. The pain stopped afterwards. That was it for the Mylotarg now she is getting the Ara-C and something that begins with Fl...... There have been some minor bouts of nausea but so far she is doing OK. She's spending a lot of time focusing on her internal process both physical and spiritual. Her moral is high with rock solid confidence that she is on the path to healing. To me she looks more beautiful then ever. I'm not sure I will recognize her when her hair grows back. Sunday will be the last day of chemo, then the next few weeks watching the numbers and dealing with the aftereffects of the drugs. I'll let Anne fill in more of the personal details as she is able but for now your constant and continued prayers are the best medicine.

Much Love

Dennis