With family here, the weeks are flying by. It’s definitely a nice distraction from purely focusing on my health situation.  We’ve packed in a lot of fun as our time together is now starting to wind down.  It’s funny how we’ve probably had more concentrated family time here in Houston than we’ve ever had back home.  Not only do we have my parents and our kids here, but we also had lunch last week with Jonathan’s aunt and uncle from NC, and my sister took an impromptu flight from Atlanta to come stay with us until mid-week. Our apartment is busting at the seams, but we are managing fine and having fun at that.

Let me see if I can quickly update the happenings here. For family fun last week, we went to the

Houston Zoo, the Natural Science Museum and we took the kids to the movies to see “How to Train Your Dragon 2.” In medical happenings, I had 5 more radiation treatments, and some tests in preparation for the stem cell transplant – chest  xray, EKG, labs, etc.

I will have my last radiation treatment tomorrow morning at 7:45 am, then I will move directly on to the stem cell department (literally, I go there at 8 am). There will be no lapse of time between the two treatments. As of now, we are proceeding with an autologous transplant (using my own stem cells).  We do not have a donor lined up,

and even after finding a match, it could take many weeks before we could harvest their stem cells and give them to me.

So, the plan, as I understand it, is to do an autologous transplant and then follow-up in 2-3 months with an allogeneic (donor) transplant. Or watch me like a hawk after the autologous transplant, and at the first sign or recurrence, do an allogeneic (donor) transplant.  Have I confused you enough? It’s a lot to understand and we will just have to take it step by step.

Tomorrow I’ll have more lab work, sign my informed consent for treatment and a few other necessary hurdles. On Tuesday, I will get the dreaded catheter inserted into my chest that’ll stay there for a few months for infusions and blood draws. (I got over the tungsten eye shield insertion, so I imagine I’ll be fine with this as well – so much of it is getting past the idea of it.)  On Thursday, I’ll have a light outpatient dose of chemotherapy – that helps get the stem cells “mobilized”. The next 2 weeks include daily shots to help my bone marrow bring an abundance of stem cells into my bloodstream for later harvest (collection and refrigeration).

Please pray: that I’m in remission as I finish radiation & that my (harshly) treated skin will begin to heal, for wisdom for my doctors as each step of the stem cell transplant is executed, for the well-being of our family and continued growth of our faith and trust in God.

Praise: I thank God for the immensely talented, brilliant and loving radiation team that has surrounded me. It is surprisingly hard for me to leave them as I must move on to the next medical team, but as I leave,  I’m confident that I’ve seen God work through their personalized and skillful care.