Chemo Round 3 Day 47

Well, today I finally have something to write about! Last Friday I had lab work, a Ct scan of my abdomen,pelvis, and chest and an MRI of the brain. My lab work has been fine. My CT scans showed that my abscesses in the liver, spleen and kidneys were improved. The spots on my lungs were improved as well. The MRI of the brain was worse, however. We had a hard time finding it on the first MRI but it was very easy to see on this MRI. We did not have a doctor's visit till the end of this week and nobody really wanted to give us much information till they saw me and my scans.

I saw Dr. Lanzotti yesterday and Dr. Dubberke, my infectious disease doctor today. They both thought I was doing fine. I had a regular exam and a neurologic exam today and both were normal. Dr Lanzotti said he was leaving things up to Dr. Dubberke and Dr. Cashen, my transplant doctor. Dr. Dubberke said today that he is happy with my abdomen and lungs and he thinks my brain is OK, too, but he wants another scan to show it is stable or improved. The doctor thought my spot on my brain must be improving. He said that I would be much sicker by now if it wasn't. Normally you would start running fevers and I would feel really bad. I would have headaches or some other problems. Thanks to our Lord and the medicine I am not having these problems. I had a lot of lab work done at his office two weeks ago to make sure there was no unusual germ causing my infection and all the tests came out OK. Some of the cultures take 6 weeks to get results but everything looks good so far. I will have another MRI on March 7th. I am to send Dr. Dubberke the disks and fax him the reports and then he will decide whether I am ready for the transplant or not. A tentative date of March 12th or March 14th for my admission has been set with the transplant occurring 6 days later. My donor has not had a problem with waiting so I still have an ideal donor waiting for me! Praise the Lord!!!

Daniel was home last weekend and Jon has been home this week. We went out to dinner this week to celebrate Jon's birthday. We played some board games last weekend and this week and had a good time. Daniel will be coming home on March 7th and David will be home March 8th. They both have the week of March 10th off for spring break. It looks like I will be home at least a part of the time they are here. I thought I would miss them completely but now it looks like I will get to spend a little bit of time with them before I go in for the transplant. God has worked things out for me once again in His way!

I will be getting my lab work repeated tomorrow. I am still getting my IV antibiotics at home and will be on it for another 10 or more days. Teresa still continues to do my IVs without any problems. The only thing the visiting nurses come for now are dressing changes every 4 days.

God continues to work things out in His own way. May He bless you as He continues to bless me!

Doc