Day + 69

Hello everyone, from a foggy afternoon in San Diego. I wish I could tell you that the last few weeks since my last message have been pleasant, but they have been anything but. I have been battling nausea, back pains, heavy fatigue and the latest newcomer to the party, low equilibrium.

As you could imagine, the last few weeks have been pretty rough for me. My days have been pretty simple. Eat four to six meals a day, walk once and a day, go to the doctor if required and if not then try to squeeze in a movie or something. But now when you introduce the level of nausea I had, the appetite I lost, the back pain that came from it…you don’t even want to get off the couch. You don’t want to eat. You don’t want to talk on the phone. You don’t want to text, email, talk or communicate with anyone in any way shape or form. It really is like living in your own private hell. Due to all of this my doctors put me through some pretty invasive tests that involved tubes going in parts of your body where naturally they just don’t belong. The worst part about that whole experience is that I woke up half way through it and start pulling the tubes out of my mouth. Then I would fall asleep again 5 seconds later, then 5 minutes later I would wake up again and do the whole thing again. Luckily it only happened when the tubes were in my throat and the biopsy’s all came back negative so it all turned out good.

Even in all of that pain, I was still able to find some pockets of fun. The best being able to attend the Laker game on Christmas day when they beat the hell out of the Celtics. It is by far the best professional basketball game I have ever been to. The energy alone charged my battery for a solid three or four days not to mention the fact the Lakers ended the Celtics winnings streak. I am going to stop with sports there because it is going to take me a good 6 – 7 months to get over Sunday’s event’s. Ok, so enough of the pain and misery I have been suffering through over the last few weeks. All I can say is I am happy I am able to find an hour of “sunshine” to write this.

So on the health side, there is some good news. I did learn that my body has completely engrafted to my donor’s bone marrow. This is what the doctors have wanted to see since the test went out six weeks ago or so. It means that the likelihood of complications that should arise from the transplant should be cut down to minimum now because of this. My counts are also still doing very well and continue to impress the doctors. Some of the issues I was having during the last few weeks led my doctor to send me to see a neurologist. He seems to think my headaches are deeper rooted that just surface pain. I disagree but we’ll see. This means I have to go in for an MRI in a few weeks, but I’ll be sure to report the finding of that back to you as I get the results.

That’s about all I have for now. My victories are being measured in very small doses lately. If I sleep through the night without being restless, that is a victory. If I wake up in the morning and can make to the kitchen and make a bowl of cereal without my back killing me, that’s a victory. If I don’t pick up a head ache inside of 15 minutes of waking up, that’s a victory. If I can make my girlfriend smile at any point of the day for any reason what so ever, that’s a victory. There are a million others, but I’ll take that last one of the rest any day. She has done so much for me over the past month especially, she is just unbelievable.

Day + 50 Eve

Happy day + 50 Eve everyone. Man, just about at the 50 day mark. That is pretty sweet I must say. I just read through some of the postings on the blog and I must say they still continue to make me smile. I am a pretty lucky guy to have all of you in my corner, and I know there are even more of you that don’t write. It’s funny, I can’t tell you how many times I run into people I don’t even know who read the blog on a regular basis. It’s a trip. My thanks go out to you as well. You guys are all awesome and I appreciate every word you say and write so please keep it up.

I have some pretty cool stuff to share with all of you tonight. At my hospital appointment on Monday, my doctor came to me with a letter from my donor. I seriously had it in my hand for 5 minutes before I finally started to read it. I don’t know why either. I guess I was a little afraid, unsure, nervous… about what I was about to read. Instead of picking out the highlights, I’ll just share the whole letter verbatim with you:

Sweden Oct 21st, 2008

Hi,

I’m a 44 years old man from Sweden. I’ve been a donor for bone marrow for about 15 years, but I haven’t donored before. When I was tested this time and was told it matched you, I didn’t hesitate a second to do the donor.

I’m sure you’ll do fine and wish you the best of luck during the process. If it’s ok with you, it would be nice to hear from you in the future.

We could exchange email addresses or so through our hospitals.

Good luck from Sweden.

I’m not embarrassed to say I cried when I read this, and still continue to well up every time I read it or even talk about it. This is the most powerful, impactful, moving letter that has ever been written to me and I wish I could put into words what it means to me, but I can’t. Everything would be understating by a mile how it has affected me. All I can say is I truly feel as though I have an angel on my shoulder, and that angel lives in Sweden. What am I going to write back to him? I have no idea. I mean where the heck do I start? Thanks for the new life. Thanks for the sacrifice. I really have no idea, but he will be getting a letter ASAP. And the kicker to the whole experience…the date he wrote the letter, Oct 21st, is my birthday, and there is no way he knew that due to donor privacy laws. If that isn’t amazing I don’t know what is.

As far as the results of the latest bone marrow test go, I’m still waiting for the results that show how much of my immune system belongs to me and my donor. Now they are saying I should have those results back by the end of next week. Either way, I’ll report back to you as soon as I have them. All blood counts continue to be exactly where they should be. WBC is at 4.9, HCT is at 31.8 with Platelets coming in at 147,000. With all of that said, I did have an absolutely horrible night on Monday night. Probably the worst night I’ve had in months and rivals some of the worst I’ve had during my chemo battles. Luckily it was very short lived and I was back at it about 24 hours later. It was a very painful reminder that this fight is far from over and I still have a long way to go. Regardless, I made it through Wednesday and I’ll make it through whatever else is thrown at me.

Take care guys and thanks for reading. We’ll catch up again soon.

Day + 41

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. I know I did and it definitely had a different meaning this year given everything that has happened. It has always been my favorite day of the year for the simple reason that you can eat great food, drink, nap and watch football all day. And of course the Cowboy game just makes the day that much better. But before this year, I could never really answer the old, "What are you thankful for?" question. I don't mean to sound like I've taken my whole life for granted, because I haven't. I'm always thankful for the place I live and for the family and friends I have. It's very easy just to shrug that question off and say yeah, life is good and I'm grateful for it. But now, everything gets put into a different perspective and I find myself deeply thankful for everything, on a far different level then before. I could very easily be dead if not for the actions and support of many people around me. That is a very odd feeling to get your arms around. All day long I found myself drifting into weird reflections of the first hospital when I was sick but didn't know what was wrong yet, then going back to the conversation with my doctor where she told me off my diagnosis, then to my battles with the chemo and later the radiation, then thinking of the non-stop support from my family, old and new friends, doctors and nurses. The visits, the thoughtful cards, books and gifts to help me take my mind off of the reality and of the situation. All of those things were going in and out my head all day long. And it's funny, I think the only reason it was all hitting me all at once is because it was Thanksgiving. I guess that's the whole point of the day. And please don't think that all of these thoughts made it a bad day for me, because it didn't. It really did quite the opposite and made it not only a great and happy day, but a special day...and the Cowboys beating the hell out of the Seahawks keeping them in the playoff hunt didn't hurt either.

Ok, enough of that babble. Let me update you on how things are going with my recovery. So far, everything remains on track and the doctors are still very happy with everything they are seeing. My blood counts are still hovering right in the range they should be and I have been feeling great. Things have just gotten better and better for me since that first really bad week of me getting discharged from the hospital. My nausea is gone for the most part and food has been tasting really good. Because of that, my weight has been going up as well. I have gained about 7 pounds since I’ve been out and that will continue to go up for another 15 pounds or so. That should get me to my target healthy weight. I’m still walking just about every day and while I’ve been in Orange County I have been able to walk with Floyd which has been really nice.

On the cancer side, all is good as well. Every 30 days since the transplant, I will be getting a bone marrow biopsy done to determine 2 things. 1, are there any cancer cells in my body. 2, how much of my immune system is mine and how much is my donors? I got the results from the first part yesterday. My body, blood and bone marrow as of now is completely cancer free and has been since I entered remission. They were even able to do a deeper dive into some of the trouble areas where the cancer was more prevalent and grouped together. In those areas as well, they saw no signs of cancer. As you can imagine, it is a pretty stressful time between the test and the results, but to hear those words that you’re still in remission is pretty unbelievable. I won’t get the results of the second part until late this week or next week, but what I’m looking for is 100% of my immune system to be that of my donor. That means that it would have fully taken over my body and pushed out my own faulty immune system. We’ll see what the results show.

For now, I’ll continue to take my 35 pills per day, walk as much as I can and eat as healthy as possible. Seems to be working so far. The only downside of this week is that my girl is in NY until Sunday. That's alright, she'll be back soon and all will be right. That’s it for now. Take care everyone and thanks for reading.

Day + 29

I GAINED TWO POUNDS! Sorry for yelling but in my current condition, 2 pounds is huge and I'll take it. Greetings from the new beach pad, and a great new pad it is. On one side we have the bay with a bunch of boat docked on moorings right off the shore. Right across the bay there is a big hotel which you can hear music from on weekend nights, or at least that's where we think it's coming from. About 4 blocks directly behind us is the ocean. Our place is positioned right on the end of the Mission bay peninsula so we’re perfectly placed for both bay and ocean. It really is a perfect spot to get well and I am loving it more and more every day. Evey and I go on walks just about every day ranging from 1-3 miles so we have done a good amount of exploring so far. Just the other morning we were walking along the ocean side and saw a bunch of dolphins sharing waves with the surfers. I had to sit down on the bench for 5 minutes just to soak it in. It was an unreal feeling just knowing that this is where I’ll be living for the next 6 months. The only thing missing is Floyd, but he has visitation rights so we’ll be seeing him occasionally.

So again, I gained 2 pounds which is huge considering I am right now about 30 pounds underweight. My last hospital visit really took it out of me for some reason. I guess it could have something to do with the chemo/radiation combo combined with the fact that I had a new immune system introduced to my body. I need to keep reminding myself of that. Anyway, I am way underweight right now and my goal now is to put it back on as quickly as possible. My clothes don’t fit anymore and I feel like I look someone out of a prison camp. I feel like one of those skinny African kids on a charity infomercial, asking for someone to “adopt” me for the cost of a cup of coffee a day. You get the picture. I’m pretty optimistic I’ll put it back in pretty quickly, but I have a couple issues I need to battle through. The first is the bad nausea that hit me when I got discharged. I had it really bad for the first 10 days or so and it has seemed to pull back a bit this week, but it still comes and goes. Nausea just makes everything look and taste horrible, no matter how hungry you are. The other issue is my taste buds, or lack there of. The last round of chemo and radiation completely fried my taste buds so foods not only taste different, but they taste bad. Everything has a weird tinge that makes all food, no matter how much you love it, taste off. And after a couple of days of that, you just don’t want to eat at all. Luckily my taste buds have finally started to come back around this week. The doctor said it could take as long as 6 weeks so I am hoping they are here to stay and not just flashing in and out. We’ll see. So once I get past these two issues, which I already kind of am, I should be back on track to put this weight back on.

As far as the rest of my health goes, all is good. I feel much better than last week and my blood counts are still very good. White blood cells are at 3,600, Hemoglobin is at 10.6, Hematocrit is at 31.9 and platelets at 119,000. All are doing great but my platelet count seems to be dropping a bit. They are still in great shape but slowly going down…no problem at all. My walks are getting better and better and I feel like I’m getting more energy with every day that passes. It will be a while before I can back into a good exercise program, but walking for now is doing wonders.

That’s it for now everyone. All is well and will keep getting better as the days go on. Take care, be well and thanks for reading.

Day + 19

Greetings from the couch, and a very comfortable couch at that. Not a bad night at all. I’m sitting here with Floyd on my right, a nice fire going in the fire place and a good football game which I didn't expect. A hell of a lot better than hospital life, that I can promise you.

So I spoke a bit too soon on our living arrangement, but don’t worry, things changed for the better. We had the Del Mar place locked and loaded at the time of my last message and had every intension of taking that place, but had one more place to check out. Well, Evey went to look at it on Friday and really liked it. She called me and we put the Del Mar place on hold until I had a chance to look at it. We went on Friday after I was released and the rest is history. This place is in Mission Beach, right on the water on the bay side. It’s a summer rental that doesn’t go advertised in the winter time. The only reason we got a shot at it is because Evey put an ad on Craig’s list outlining what we needed. Our new landlord saw Evey’s ad and luckily gave us a call. After two visits and a few phone calls, we move in on Friday. It’s a three bedroom, two bath place right on the boardwalk. You could literally throw a rock to the water and spit on the sand. I couldn’t think of a better place to get well.

So I’d like to say the weekend was good and all has gone well since my release from the hospital, but it hasn’t. For some reason, from the minute I walked out of the hospital to the present, I have felt like crap. Crap would be putting it nicely. There is no reason as to why and the doctors today say it’s a part of recovery. It feels like the last 5 months have just come crashing down on me, all at once and all together. All I can say is that for some reason I only see this lasting for the next day or so then things will be back to normal. I guess you’ll have to wait until my next message to see if my optimistic outlook held true. Either way, the last four days have sucked and I can’t wait until this has passed, whatever it is.

Today was testing day at the hospital so Evey and I spent the day down there. Aside from me just generally feeling crappy, my counts look really good and things are progressing well. For those of you keeping track, my WBC is at 3,000, Hemoglobin is at 10.2, Hematocrit is at 30.3 and platelets at 158,000. All have climbed since my last reading so things continue to get better. I have had minimal signs of rejection and can only hope it stays that way.

That’s it for now. Take care and thanks for reading.

Day + 16

Greetings from the hospital everyone. Hopefully this will be the last posting from this place…only time will tell. I am supposed to be released today which cannot come soon enough. At this point, there isn’t a whole lot that can keep me from leaving so I should be home bound by mid afternoon. Even though I have only been here for roughly 20 days on this stint, it has seemed like a lifetime and has been by far the most challenging. I can’t quite put my finger on as to why, but to say I am happy to leave is a huge understatement.

I know one huge thing that I will not miss is the menu, and the food that goes along with it. It’s funny because I have a very strong appetite which the doctors love, but I just can’t stomach this food anymore and as a result, my weight has dropped to 153 pounds, the lowest since my diagnosis. I can usually get a big breakfast down, but come lunch time and dinner time I struggle. I’m pretty much living on protein shakes, bars and drinks which doesn’t seem to be doing anything for me from a weight perspective. My guess is I will put this weight back on in no time upon my release.

So my departure plan couldn’t be better. Evey and I will leave the hospital today and head back up to my Dad’s house for the next 6 days. Then on the 13th, we will be moving into our new place in Del Mar. If the hospital had it their way, I would be in a hotel from today until the 13th, but that to me was ridiculous so we made the call just to head back to pop’s pad. It’s about a 50 minute drive so I’m still close enough to get here quickly in case something goes wrong.

Thank you to everyone who lent a helping hand in trying to find a place for us. The place we are going with was one of the first ones we really liked, but someone entered the scene and swooped it from us by writing them a check for 6 months of rent. We were bummed but figured there would be more out there, but the more we looked, the more we realized that that place was a gem. Well, as luck would have it, that fat check bounced and now the place is ours. Unfortunately as I said above, it won’t be ready until the 13th but it will be well worth the wait. It’s a stone’s throw from the beach and perfect for what we need until the April/May timeframe.

As far as my health goes, all is good. My counts are looking good and aside from being tired during random parts of the day, I feel great. My doctors continue to use the word amazing when describing my post transplant recovery so I can hang my hat on that for now. My counts for those of you keeping track are: White Blood Cells – 2,000, Hematocrit – 27.8, Hemoglobin – 9.7 and Platelets continue to climb to 149,000. All are exactly where they should be and the goal of my 3 visits per week to the Cancer Center here will be to make sure they remain in line.

That’s it for today everyone. Thanks for reading and we’ll catch up soon.

P.S. Sorry this is so long Kate...

Day + 12

Happy Monday everyone. I hope that by now you are all coming out of your weekend fog and ready to be productive, where ever you are. Better late then never right?

So in the world of Leukemia, the only four words better than “Congratulations, you’re in remission”, are “Congratulations, you are engrafting”. Engrafting is a word used in the world of the stem cell transplantation. It means the stem cells that were introduced to the host body via transplant have embedded into the bone marrow and started producing new cells. This usually takes 15 days or so from the time the host body cell counts go to 0. In my situation, day + 3 was when my counts hit 0.

Well, the night before last at 3am Sunday morning, my nurse walked in and told me those 4 magical words, “Congratulations, you are engrafting”. That’s right, I started engrafting on Sunday, day + 11. But in reality it is actually Day + 8 due to the fact it took my counts 3 days to hit 0 after the chemo/radiation treatments. I seriously can’t put into words what it means and feels like to hear those words. At that point, my nurse could have been wearing white wings and a golden halo. That is how much it means to hear those words. All the pain I went through over the past 4 months. All of the anger and resentment. All of that time being curled up in a ball waiting for the misery to pass. All of that goes away when you hear those words.

Now there is still a long way to go, but my doctors have all told me that it is pretty amazing to see so much happen in such a sort period of time. They all feel the prognosis is extremely positive based on what they are seeing now. As of today my white cells are at 4,500, hemoglobin is at 10, hematocrit is at 28.9 and platelets are at 37. Those are all up from the day before and are misleadingly looking like healthy counts. Misleadingly because the cells being produced are very immature. It could take up to 3 months for those cells to mature into the cells of a normal, healthy person. During those 2-3 months is when it is most critical, which is why it is so important for Evey and I to find a place down here. It is just too risky to be longer than 15 minutes away from the hospital in case I come down with a fever or any other sign of rejection. We are still looking for a place but getting closer.

The bummer about all of this is that if we had a place down here, I could get released from the hospital on Wednesday of this week. But because we don’t have a place for me to go to, and Orange County is absolutely out of the question, I have to stay in the hospital until we have a place. That is how serious the next 3 months are going to be. I’ll tell you what though, if that is my biggest problem at this point…I’m stoked.

That’s it for now guys but as you can see much more to come. Feel free to lob any questions my way. Until then, take good care of yourselves and we’ll catch up soon.

-Kurt

Day + 9

Happy Halloween everyone. I can only imagine the plundering that went on tonight. If I remember correctly, the last year of Steve and I grabbing free candy on Halloween was my freshman year in high school. You gotta love that. Even still, I bet there few more of you out there that dragged it along even further. Good for you is what I say. If the groms can go out and get their goods, so can we. And if you are reading this and are one of those houses that gives away pennies, please cease and desist from reading this blog ever again, ha, just kidding, kind of. No offense

So what the hell am I supposed to be writing about…oh yeah…my health? All is good on the western front aside from my mouth and my headaches. What I have been telling everyone is that things are great from the neck down. It’s the neck up that’s killing me. The Mucositis came back in a big way and they have just made my constant headaches multiply in strength. All of this was expected so that makes it little bit easier to tolerate, but it is still a horrible way to live. I can see this hanging around for a couple more days then I’ll be fine again. To be perfectly honest with you, if that is the biggest complanit I have at this stage in the game, I think I’m doing alright for myself.

My blood counts are still very low. WBC (white blood cells) are undetectable but this is expected, the chemo and radiation made sure of that. Book says I should start to see some movement around day +15 or +20. My other counts are down too. A couple of days ago I needed two bags of blood and two bags platelets which brought them back up into the acceptable range. I’m still about 20 pounds light but I can see that going back on once I get out of here and get some of my energy back. So again, all is good on the western front health wise.

Our housing search is taking a bit longer then expected, but we’ll find something. If anyone has any sort of connection that could make this process a little less painless, please drop Evey or me a line. We are looking for a furnished, one bedroom as close to the beach as possible within 15 minutes of the hospital

That’s it for now guys. Take care, be well and we’ll catch up soon.

Day + 6

Wow, 6 days since the introduction of my new bone marrow and stem cells…amazing. Hi everyone, warm greetings from sunny San Diego. Not that I can enjoy any of it aside from looking through a window. With that said, I hope there are a bunch of you out on the sand somewhere. OK, enough of that, I’m starting to depress myself.

So today is officially Day + 6 and all is on track. The doctors meet with Evey and me every morning to discuss how things are going and everything so far has been positive. The nurses provide feedback regularly as well and they are saying things are going great. I do have somewhat of a sore throat, which they say is a side effect of the radiation treatment. I guess it can really break down the lining inside of the mouth, so irritations like sore throats become more prevalent…but not serious.

On a worse note, my luck ran south today. Part of the post transplant treatment is the need for a drug called FK 506. This drug is critical when it comes to fighting any sort of rejection from the new cells, so not only is it important to make sure I am getting the drug, it’s just as important to make sure I have the right levels of the drug in my system. One other thing different about FK 506 is that it sticks to the walls of the IV tubing, so in order to get a clean reading of how much of it is in my system, they need to draw blood from a tube has not had any FK 506 run through it, or they run the risk of having a false result. A false result meaning the tests show a high amount of FK 506 because they pulled some residue off the tube walls. So what they do is keep one of my two lines clean of FK 506 and dedicate the other line to the administration of the drug. That way, when it’s time to check the FK 506 levels in my system, they have a clean line to pull from.

Well, someone messed up yesterday and administered the drug through the clean line. This means that any future tests on how much or how little FK 506 I have in my system would have to be done on the other arm, blood drawn with a needle…twice a day. The alternative was to have them go in, pull out the contaminated line and replace it with a new one. I went with that and was actually pretty cool. They had the whole thing on a monitor so I got to see the procedure first hand. It’s all good now and my PIC line is back and working. I think I’m going to hang a sign or something this time just to make absolutely sure this doesn’t happen again. I don’t think that will be necessary though, because when news spread about what happened, there were a bunch of pissed off doctors and nurses. I think it goes without saying that the nurse who did this will not be doing it again for quite a while. In all honesty, what happened today is miniscule in comparison to the big picture so we’re already over it and I hope she is too.

That’s my news for today guys. It’s still a roller coaster for me when it comes to nausea, mouth issues and fatigue but those are pretty easy to fight through when you can see the finish line ahead. Thanks again for reading my rambling messages. Just knowing you guys are out there means more to me than you know. Take care, be well and we'll catch up soon.

Day + 3

Hello everyone. I send you greetings from the hospital as my cells engraft away...I hope. So again, Day + 3 means I am now 3 days post transplant. Things are going well and I am definitely feeling much better than last week. It's difficult not to feel better considering last week was filled with chemotherapy and radiation, but it is still nice to say. I also received some great news yesterday from the bone marrow biopsy I went through last week. The results came back and I am still in remission! I was so glad to hear that news which now means I am well positioned. My nausea, which is my worst enemy when undergoing treatment is not completely gone, but I think that has more to do with the menu here in the hospital, than my treatment last week. And that is no joke my friends.

All is on track from a progress perspective. My counts are at 0 which means it's now time for my new immune system to start to mature and do it's thing. It will probably take about 10-15 days for my cells to start to engraft and build my new immune system. Until then, all I can do is wait and be very careful not to let in any sort of infection. They even have me quarantined to my room, whereas before I was at least able to leave my room and walk the floor. When I tried that today they beat me back with a stick and told me I’m stuck here until my counts return.

It looks like we will only be here for a few weeks and then Evey and I need to live near the hospital. It is going to be tough leaving Orange County but I need to be as close as possible to the hospital for 150 days post transplant. So for the next week Evey will be hard at work trying to find our next residence. Fun, fun stuff but we’re looking forward it. If you live down here, all I can say is there goes the neighborhood

Take care guys and be well. We’ll catch up soon.

Day 0 (October 22nd, 2008)

Day 0:

If you're unlcear on what day 0 means, please go ahead and read the last blog entry which should explain everything. Well, what a wonderful way to spend a birthday. Yesterday was the big day and I spend it curled up in a ball fighting though the worst stomach pains ever. I didn’t expect those back to back doses of chemo and radiation to really hit me that hard, but they did. Luckily I am already starting to come out of it but it has been a really tough go since Saturday afternoon when it started.

So, as of today I have completed my final rounds of chemo and radiation and have just finished taking in my new stem cells, so that transplant is done. I can’t believe it myself, but the day has finally come. There is a long way to go but I can at least say I am now on the road to recovery. It’s an odd feeling knowing that someone out there in another part of the world went through what they had to go through to get me these cells. Quite overwhelming actually.

Just to give you an idea of how the radiation works, they have you lay down on a table in an awkward position for about 45-50 minutes with your arms taped behind your head in a box type of shape. The first session was the worse because my arms had to remain like that for over an hour while they took measurements. By the time it was over I was screaming at them asking how much longer it was going to be. I’m sure they loved that. The worst part about it was thinking I had five more of those sessions to go. Luckily the final 5 sessions which were done 2 per day were much shorted and more comfortable. More comfortable because I think because I knew what was coming. Well, my final radiation treatment was at 4:00pm today and then two hours later I was watching my new stem cells enter my body. It is absolutely amazing how these things work. There are some very smart people out there who deserve all the respect in the world as well as every penny they earn. I can’t begin that thank those guys enough.

So day 0, my new birthday…the day after my real birthday…what a trip. They say that my new cells are already engrafting to my body so this stuff is already working. With that said, I am still feeling pretty bad right now. It has been tough for me to keep any kind of food down and my headaches are pretty bad, but I am very optimistic that these issues will be better tomorrow.

Thanks for reading everyone and please look out for a new post in the next couple of days. Your messages back still crack us up so please continue to write back. Like I said, Evey and I read every single one of them so keep ‘em coming. You guys are the best and I really don’t know where I’d be without you. Be well and stay in touch.

October 18th, 2008 (Day 0 - 5)

Hi everyone and greetings from the hospital. Before I get started, I'd like to explain the date above (Day 0 - 5). Day 0 is the day I am scheduled to get my new immune system via stem cell transplant. They call it day 0 because everything going forward will work off of that day. It makes it much easier for the doctors to work with when communicating with each other because that is obviously the critical day that everything stems from. So Day 0 - 5 means that I will be getting my transplant in 5 days, on Wednesday. For example, 2 days after transplant the date will read Day 0 + 2, or simply + 2. Now onto the message.

I just checked back in today after being home for a few great weeks. I certainly had my ups and downs during that time which I wrote about, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a nice and needed break from the hospital. I spent some quality time with Floyd, had a phenomenal early birthday party (Thanks Marc, Christine and Evey), and was able to spend the last few days in San Diego at a work event. I wasn’t there for work but it was really cool catching up with some old friends and spending time with people I haven’t seen in a while. Well all good things must come to an end and as difficult as it was to walk back through the hospital doors today, I am very eager to get going on the final phase of my treatment. The final phase consists of 2 days of chemo which will be Saturday and Sunday, 3 days of full body radiation which happens twice a day from Monday through Wednesday, then straight to the stem cell transplant on Wednesday night. These 5 days of treatment should pretty much annihilate my immune system to the point where the cells in my bone marrow are completely wiped out. For all intents and purposes, I will have no immune system on Wednesday night which is what you need to go forward with the stem cell transplant.

The stem cell transplant is a very non-invasive procedure for both the donor and me. On the donor side it consists of a lengthy process of taking blood out, filtering that blood for the stem cells it needs, then putting the unused blood back in. This is done over the course of four days for four hours each day. So it’s not necessarily a painful procedure on the donor’s end, but it takes a hell of a long time and is certainly a disruption to his life. For that I will forever be in is debt, even though I have no idea who he is. What I do know is that he is 29 years old, is in very good health and is from Sweden. On my side, the procedure consists of a basic blood transfusion where they pump in the new stem cells via my IV. It’s that simple. The amazing thing is that these stem cells for whatever reason know exactly where to go and what to do as soon as they enter my system. In fact, they should start attaching to my empty marrow inside of 30 minutes.

In my last blog, I gave you a brief understanding of blood counts and what the numbers mean. My counts over the last week and a half have continued to go up and get healthier. Although I haven’t felt the best over the last week or so, my counts are showing that my immune system continues to grow, and that is a great sign of things to come as my body takes to the stem cell transplant. As of right now, my white blood cell count is at 6,500 which means I have an immune system as good as anyone healthy and cancer free. My hemoglobin count is at 9.4 which means there are normal amounts of oxygen being delivered throughout my body. And finally my platelet count is at 127,000 which means all is good from a healing perspective. So with that said, all is good and I can only hope I have the same sort of recovery post transplant. My doctors are very optimistic that all will go very well and this will be a huge success. That was really good to hear from them and as a result, Evey and I are just as optimistic.

That’s it for now everyone. Take care of yourselves, be well and I’ll catch up soon. I will try to write every other day or so depending on how I feel.

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Good morning everyone and happy Saturday. Even though I haven't worked in quite some time, Saturday morning for some reason always has a great feeling. I know, I know, it's amazing this is the second message this week. Trying to pick it up from my end.

This week has been a struggle as you could tell from my last message, but I'm happy to say the mucositis has started to subside and I am feeling much better again. I was in the hospital on Friday and all looked good. The culture they took off of my tongue came back negative to there is nothing funky going on there. Kind of expected that but it's always good to hear. I can only hope and pray that my time with mucositis is done.

As I said, I was down in San Diego on Friday. I am actually down there 3 days a week getting my counts checked. By counts I mean blood counts. they look at roughly 60 different measurements in my blood ranging from sodium levels to white and red cells. The main ones I keep track of are WBC (White blood cells), HGB (Hemoglobin) and Platelets.

WBC (White Blood Cells) - Important because they are what enable your body to fight infection. If your white blood cells are low, you're immune system is at risk. A healthy WBC is in the range of 4,000 - 10,000.

HGB (Hemoglobin) - Transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. One of the reasons I went to the doctor in the first place is because I was getting extremely fatigued when I would exercise. I went from running 7-8 miles at a time to a point where I couldn't even go a mile without stopping. That is because my hemoglobin was pretty much gone. A healthy HGB is in the range of 14 - 17.

Platelets - Allow your blood to clot and scab up when you have a cut. A healthy platelet count is above 140,000.

So these are the big ones I keep track of myself and get tested on three days a week. After chemo, it’s perfectly normal that all of these counts drop to pretty much nothing. The chemo is a poison that throws the baby out with the bath water so everything gets killed. That is why you pretty much feel dead during and after chemo. Here is what my counts looked like this week so you have an example of what I’m talking about:

Monday, Oct 6th:
WBC was 0 so that means no immune system. This is a very dangerous and risky position to be in.
HGB count was 6 so my body was receiving less than half of its normal oxygen supply. Because this number is so low, they infused two bags of blood into my body which drives up the HGB count.
Platelets were 4,000...well below the 140,000 mark. Again, because this number is so low, they infused a bag of platelets into my body as well. All of this is done via IV so it is painless but makes for a long day. There is nothing they can do for WBC except wait for my marrow to wake up and go to work.

Wednesday, Oct 8th:
WBC started to grow and came in at 1,300, so my marrow got to it.
HGB was still very low at 7.7 so I had to get another two bags of blood infused. Platelets were very low again at 12,000 so I again had to get a bag of platelets infused.

Friday, Oct 10th:
WBC grew to 4,700 so things are doing great there. This basically means that I have a normal immune system. Don't worry, chemo and radiation next week will take care of that.
HGB measured at 10.3 which is above the infusion threshold so I didn't have to take any blood.
Platelets were 31,000. This is also above the infusion threshold so I didn't have to take any platelets.

So there you have it. I bet you didn't think you were in store for a science class huh. I wanted to give you an idea of what the key blood markers are I get tested for, what the numbers look like and how they affect me. I am officially in my last week of freedom before I go back to the hospital full time. This next week will be full of poking, prodding and testing so it should be a good one. I'll keep you all updated on how those tests turn out.

Take care everyone and be well.

Wednesday, September 8th, 2008

Hi everyone,

reaching out to you in the midst of another heat wave. I think it hit 100 degrees again today. It’s nice to know that even though I missed most of summer in the hospital, I can count on good old So Cal to extend it out a few months for me. Evey and I are still walking Floyd every morning and it really is one of the best parts of my day. Being outside, smelling the fresh cut grass, spending quality time with Floyd and Evey, feeling the sun on my face and even in one case the rain on my head. You gotta love So Cal. I know I’m loving every day of it while I’m out of the hospital.

Things are all on track with regards to the transplant. I still have a hospital readmission date of October 17th with a transplant date of the 23rd. I have been assured that what happened with the first donor is highly irregular and should not be expected to happen again. For those of you who don’t know, the first donor had what his doctor called “medical complications” the forced us to move on to another donor. It’s tough not to expect something to go wrong given everything that has happened, but we are optimistic that all will go smoothly.

As far as my health goes, I have been doing relatively well. I say relatively because it was only 10 days ago that I finished the toughest, most brutal regimen of chemo to date. Since I walked out of the hospital on Friday afternoon the 26th, I have experienced some nausea and a little bit of joint pain due to some medication, but nothing has compared to what I am battling now…a side effect called mucositis. This is basically a condition that results in extremely painful mouth sores. I know, glamorous huh? I had dodged these for the first 4 months of my treatment knowing the entire time how lucky I had been. Well, my luck ran out and I got nailed by it last Thursday. Lucky for me, instead of having multiple small sores spread around the mouth, I had one big one located right at the base of the bottom of my tongue…sarcasm of course. I could not have been more unlucky. It is no exaggeration when I tell you that this has been the most painful experience I have ever had to deal with in my entire life. I never could have imagined how speaking, eating and drinking could be so painful. Pretty much any tongue movement put me in agony. To make the experience even better, the doctor had to take a biopsy of it on Monday. This meant scraping the top layer off the top of the sore with a hard plastic brush. I’d like to say my eyes were watering but I’m pretty sure I was crying. Just ask Evey, she was in the room laughing at me, just kidding. The good news is I finally feel like it is getting better. It is still there and very painful, but by the way it feels today, I can say it’s on it’s way out.

I touched on the Light the Night Walk on my last entry. Besides, I think most of you who read this blog either donated or participated in the walk. Again, I want to thank everyone who did either of those two things…and I want to especially thank Van Skoglund for taking the lead and handling pretty much the whole thing. He took care of the shirts, coordinated the food, dealt with the charity on one side and all of you on the other. It really could not have been the event it was without Van’s help and Evey and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you so much. I also want to thank Natasha for celebrating her birthday with us on that day. If you were lucky enough to be there, you know how much fun it was and how much of a great time Team Chrome Dome had. I will commit to you that we get some pictures of the event on this site. Look for those one or two days from now. We had a huge pre-party, took pictures with Rod Carew, walked on the field of Angel Stadium while getting our mugs on the big screen and closed out the night with a birthday party for Natasha at the Yardhouse. It was quite a night that left a few soldiers badly wounded. It really turned out to be a day that life should be all about. It was a special time with family and friends, giving back to a great cause while having the time of our lives doing it. We couldn’t have scripted it better.

That should pretty much bring you up to speed with what’s going on. Evey and I again want to thank everyone for your unwavering support. This experience is still a roller coaster with ups, downs and loops all over the place, but we will be pulling up into that station soon enough. The transplant phase begins very soon and it can’t come a day too early. I can’t wait to take this on, succeed and be looking back at it in no time.
Take care and be well everyone…

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

Greetings from the outside. I'm happy to be reporting to you again from outside the confines of the hospital walls. It's been a very long week and I'm happy to see it move on. After spending roughly three weeks of possibly the best weeks of my life out of the hospital, I was sent back on last Sunday for what's called consolidation chemotherapy. I was under the impression that this type of treatment was fairly light in comparison to the others I've gone through, but that turned out to be completely wrong. As it goes, consolidation chemo is much stronger than any other type of chemo I had previously been on, including the FLAG chemo which put me in remission. The thought makes sense because you want to hit it with everything you've got to keep you in remission, but it was a difficult week. By far the toughest 5 day stretch I have had since I was pushed down this path, but as I said I am happy to see it gone.

As of now I am recovering at home and will continue to do so until October 17th. At that point I'll check back into the hospital and start the pre transplant treatments of chemo and radiation. The way the plan stands today, I will be undergoing the transplant on October 23rd. From there the story remains the same. 4-5 weeks of recovery in the hospital, we find a place to stay in San Diego for another 4-5 months.

That is pretty much what I have for you al as far as an update goes. Things are moving along and I'm happy to see that donor number 2 looks like it is really going to happen.

I'd like to thank everyone again for donating and taking part in the Light the Night Walk last weekend. I was so happy to be able to make it and see everyone. Your generosity, caring, thoughts, prayers...all of it was really overwhelming and I can't put into words how touched Evey and I were. That day is really what kept my head up last week during the hell I was going through and I have all of you to thank for that.

Take care everyone and go Angels and Cowboys!

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Happy Friday everyone. Once again, I am extremely happy to be typing this message from the comfort of my couch. Every minute I am out of the hospital gets better and better. It is a huge cliché, but it is certainly true. You really have to appreciate the small things in life if you are going to enjoy it. A breath of fresh air, the sunset, a walk around the block, the sunshine, quality time with friends and family…I could go on and on. In a weird way I feel lucky to be going through this because it has made me appreciate so much more.

So with that said, I received some bad news on Tuesday when I went down to the hospital for some blood tests and a visit with my doctor. Apparently, my donor’s doctor sent a message to my doctor saying they are having “medical complications” with the donor and they have to push the transplant out by 4-5 weeks. This is something they have never seen before so it obviously threw us all for a loop. As a result, we made the decision to pass on the original donor and go with one of the other two. If you remember, we had the search narrowed down to three donors who were all equally good, so the good news is I’m not giving up any quality. The bad news is everything now gets pushed out 4-5 weeks. So instead of me going in next Friday and prepping for my transplant the following week, I now have to go in next Friday for a round of consolidation chemotherapy, recover for three weeks, then hopefully be ready to go with another donor at the end of recovery. And that is a best case scenario dependant on whether or not they can fast track the new donor through the pre-transplant process.

Frustrating would be an understatement, but I just have to get used to the fact that issues like this that are going to pop up along the way, and I am going to have to deal with them accordingly. It’s certainly not the end of the world, but a month is a month. I still have to look at the bright side which is the fact that I have three high quality matches to begin with. There are a lot of people in my situation who wait many months to get any match. Luckily for me I have multiple options.

Outside of that, I feel great and my counts continue to climb. My white blood cell count is up to 5,700, red blood cell count is 3,500 and platelets are at a whopping 514,000. These are the big three indicators to look at, and all three look great. That’s about it everyone. I plan on enjoying my last week of freedom then getting ready for the hospital once again. Thanks for reading and take care.

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Hi everyone and happy Saturday. I’m happy to report that I am writing this blog from the comfort of my own couch watching my own TV. I can’t even begin to tell you how good that feels. For those of you who don’t know, I was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday the 3rd and have loved every minute of my freedom. Sleeping in my own bed, not getting woken up every few hours for tests, eating non-hospital food, feeling the sunshine, walking my dog, I could go on for hours how much I missed the simple stuff…the stuff I didn’t even think twice about before I got hit with cancer. It’s amazing how badly you miss this stuff when it’s taken away. Well, the great news is that I have it back for a couple of weeks and I am going to embrace and enjoy every minute of it.

So as most of you know, the good news came in about 10 days ago that my white blood cell counts had taken a dramatic turn for the better pretty much overnight, and then continued to get better and better as the days went on. This is what led to my 2 week vacation from the hospital. Not only were my counts up, but they didn’t find any cancer cells in the blood they were pulling. All of this was excellent news. My bone marrow was coming to life and they were making clean cells.

Well, the news got a hundred times better yesterday. I received a phone call from my doctor who told me I am officially in REMISSION! That’s right, round 3 of the chemo treatment I was on did some serious ass whooping on the cancer in my bone marrow and cleaned it out. What this basically means is that I am going into the transplant phase under the best of circumstances. Had I not hit remission, my chances of success would have been much lower, so as you can imagine to get this news was just amazing. I think my doctor was more excited about than me which is always a good feeling.

As far as my condition goes, I feel great and my energy levels keep getting higher and higher. I’m walking Floyd everyday which is tougher than I thought, but I am starting to feel stronger. It’s great to be back behind the bbq and I am starting to enjoy food again. I guess you could say all is good in Kurt’s world.

Anyway, that is the news I have to share with you as of now. The great news just keeps coming and I can only expect that to continue. Thank you all once again for your support, prayers and thoughts, they seem to working so keep em coming. Talk to you soon.

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Hi everyone, got some great news to share with all of you. Got word a couple of days ago from the doc that my white blood cells counts have taken a huge U-turn and climbed from 0 which is where they have been since the first round of chemo, to 1,400 in 1 day. This is a huge jump and one they really can't even explain, but who the hell cares, I'll take it. It's the first bit of good news I've had in quite a while and it got better and better as the last few days went by. The next day my white cells nearly doubled to 2,500, and now they are up to 2,800 after a third day of growth.

The best part about all of this is there are absolutely no cancer cells in my blood, but this doesn't mean I am cancer free. To see exactly what is going on, on Tuesday I am having another bone marrow biopsy done to get the results of that 3rd round of chemo. If there is no cancer in my bone marrow it means I am finally in remission.

Regardless of whether or not I am in remission, with this jump in white cells, comes the opportunity for me to finally go home. As of now, it looks like I'll be getting discharged from the hospital on Wednesday the 3rd, returning back on the 19th or 20th for the transplant procedure. This means I get to sleep in a real bed, eat at restaurants, hang out with Floyd, go to the movies...all that good stuff that gets taken for granted everyday.

Well, that's my news. What do you think? Are you as excited as I am? If you're reading this blog, it probably means you have been there with me the whole way which means you are just as excited as me. This is certainly not the end of the road, but it is one hell of a bright spot along the way. No doubt there are many more battles to fight and win, but I know that having you guys right there with me means there is no way I won't prevail. Take care everyone and thanks for reading.

P.S. - Happy birthday Mom, Dad, Hans, Michael and Michael

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Hi everyone,

not a whole lot to report on from my end but it hasn't been the smoothest week, that's for sure. These fevers I have been fighting for the past week or so don't seem to want to leave me alone. They are at least simmering down to the 102 level as opposed to 104+, and they are only hitting at night as opposed to both day and night, so those two things definitely make them more manageable....but they are still fevers none the less. Fevers here mean extra tests all day long, and sometimes all night long. If means extra blood cultures, Tylenol and whatever meds and antibiotics they feel fits the job. All in all it's not that bad, just annoying due to all of the extra hoops I have to jump through. I don't feel any worse though, just warmer.

I also have the pesky cold which has resulted in me going through 3 different sets of chest and head X-Rays, and 2 CT scans in the last 5 days. These guys don't mess around here. They see a sign of one potential issue, they throw everything they have at it. All tests have turned up negative which is news I can certainly live with.

As far as "The Plan" goes, I may finally have some hard dates set regarding treatment. I say "may" because this information came from someone who works with the person who is handling my transplant case, not the actual person. Until it comes from her mouth, it will always remain a "may" situation. Anyway, do you remember when I mentioned there would be an additional week of treatment before the transplant procedure? Well it looks like the fun begins on September 20th which coincidentally enough is the same day of the day of the charity walk. Nice huh? So the 20th and 21st will be filled with chemo treatments. The 22nd through the 24th will be my full body radiation days which leaves the target, go time, all cards on the table, TRANSPLANT day looking as of now like Friday, September 25th. I know there are a lot of questions about this and they will come out as we get closer to the date, but that how everything looks as of now. I must tell you, it feels pretty damn good to have date set, even if it's not set in stone just yet.

Wow, I guess I had more than just a quick update. Thanks for reading everyone and as you can see, much more information to follow as this whole thing unravels. I am feeling and doing great and as always we appreciate all of your unwavering support and love. Take care everyone, be well and we'll talk soon.

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

So I had a very eventful Friday night tonight. Who says I can't have some fun while I'm in here. Not only did I get to take a walk down the CT Scan (catscan) lab, but I got to do it unattached to my IV machine...and for those of you who have been down here to visit, you know how huge that is. Imagine being attached to 3 IV machines with no relief except for a few seconds to change a shirt for...2 straight months. Now you know how great of a walk that was. It was a great Friday night in the hospital.

Now to the stuff that sucks. I have been battling a fever for the past two nights that has just taken me down. The body temp isn't what bothers me, it's the medication they give me to fight it. These meds pretty much knock me out, so for the last 2 days I have been spending a lot of time in bed and awake or a lot of time in bed and asleep. That existance just sucks but my temp got as high as 104.5 so it isn't something you can just shrug off. I am hopefully at the tail end of the fever but these things come and go pretty quickly so you never know. I just had a reading done a few seconds ago which put at 101.2. Fingers are crossed it keeps going down, these ice packs are starting to get uncomfortable.

So as far as "The Plan" goes (seems like that's what we'll be calling it based on the blog postings), nothing has changed and we are on track. I know they are still trying to get the scheduling side of it nailed down with the donor, but the nuts and bolts remain the same.

Halos seem to be slipping a bit but nothing to worry about, the offense will turn on again. Let's just hope it doesn't turn off again. Cowboys looked really good tonight. First team offense looks solid, defense looks good but could be better and special teams needs some serious help. I'm just happy football is right around the corner. I'm excited about the other football as well. Bayern Munich is back with Klinsmann at the helm so I am hoping they repeat their championship ways and go back to back in the Bundesliga.

That's it guys. Been a rough couple of days but nothing to keep me from smiling once in a while. Take care and be well everyone.

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Happy Monday everyone, and I can guess you can already tell from the tone of those first few words that I have turned the corner on feeling the pains of chemo round 3. I am officially calling today the end of the misery. My appetite isn't fully back yet but today I was able to do some exercise, sit outside with Evey for a bit and watch a couple of movies in comfort. I won't make mention of the Angel game. All I can say is it's good to be back my friends.

So there isn't much news to report on, but I can give you all an idea of what's to come in the next month or so. As it went with the first two rounds of chemo treatment, my body is now in recovery mode. My white and red blood cell counts are at rock bottom, no surprise, and will be for a few weeks. There will not be a round 4 of treatment. The plan as of now is to go forward with the transplant roughly 4 weeks from now. This does not mean I will be chemo free though. About a week before the transplant, I will go through 3 days of intense radiation treatment and 2 days of chemotherapy. These 5 days, in addition to the treatment I just went through, will pretty much wipe my immune system clean of my body. At that point I'm ready for transplant and away we go. More details to come on all of that as we get closer to go time, but it feels good to know what the plan is and to know things are moving forward. I am very optimistic that my body will be in a perfect state of readiness when transplant time hits. It has been no small sacrifice, but well worth it none the less.

One small side note from the weekend and I'll get out of your hair. As bad as this whole situation has been, I have been able to pull some pretty cool things out for myself along the way, that would not have happened had I not gotten cancer. The most valuable one being able to see the love, strength and caring of my friends and family. You always know it's there but it is amazing to see it first hand. I have a cousin who lives in Northern California who I have not seen in nearly 6 years. No hard feelings between he and I, no drama or fighting that would keep us from being in contact, just two paths going different directions. My guess is you know where this is going, but within a few days of learning about my situation, my cousin Ryan was in his car and driving south to come and see me. I can't tell you how great of a feeling it is to see your family or friends, just drop everything and come see you when you need them most. Hopefully you will never be in a situation like I am in to experience it, but as I said, there are some real gems that shine in even the worst situations, and this was certainly one of them.

Thanks for reading everyone and have a great week. I have a good feeling I will.

Thursday, August14th, 2008

Hi everyone, I hope all is well. First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you who wrote a message on the blog since my last post. As you could imagine, this third round of chemo has really taken a heavy toll on me given it's strength and potency, so it was great to plug in and ready your messages. Again, I can't tell you how much that does for me to see those messages.

So yes, this round of treatment has been tough on me. It has been my first real test which makes sense given the fact that the first two rounds were pretty ineffective. I have zero energy, my appetite is non-existent and my stomach is one big knot. That's the bad news. The good news is that as quickly as I started this round of chemo, it has already ended. It has already come and gone as will the side effects and discomfort that came along with it. Where that leaves me now is in another few weeks of recovery while waiting for my blood counts to climb back up.

Again, I want to thank you all for your support whether it comes though cards, donations, messages, whatever...they all get heard and they all go as far, if not further than you intended. This is a tough spot but all is well and I will come out through the other side of this in no time. How could I not considering everything going on in the world of sports. Angels are ruling everyone and the Cowboys OWNED the Chargers on the one and only drive they had their starters in. Going to be a good season.

Take care everyone and thanks again for the support! Will check back with you soon.

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Hi everyone, and let me apologize for such a long lag between the last post and this one. A lot has been going on and I have a lot to report on so sorry for the long one this time. So the last time I left you I think it was the day before they were going to perform the always barbaric bone marrow biopsy, which did not disappoint again this time. I'll spare you the details.

Hopes were high on round 2, results came and everything came crashing down. The news was pretty harsh saying that 50% of the cells left in the marrow were still cancer cells. This was quite a blow. What it basically means is that the chemo treatments I have been going through for the past 6 weeks are just not strong enough for the cancer I am fighting. This is a much more aggressive and progressive form of cancer the doctors anticipated, so I have been under gunned this whole time. As you could imagine, when I got the news on Friday night I was pretty devastated, especially with the visions of grandeur that I may have been able to get out of here for a week or so and get my head right. Options completely changed at that point which really only left 1.

Option 1 was to wait for my white cells to come up which could take a couple of weeks, get out of here for a week and come back for round 3 of chemo which could take 3-4 weeks in its entirety,
Option 2 was to get started on round 3 of chemo right away and not waste any time. I absolutely took option 2. I will have plenty of time to get home when all this is done. Wasting three weeks didn't seem like a viable possibility, so as I type this message, I am currently undergoing round 3 of chemotherapy treatment. This treatment is called "FLAG-IDA" chemo which lasts 5 days using three different kinds of chemo medicines and a daily shot in the stomach.

This round of chemo is a whole new ball game. It is 20 times more potent than the first two rounds so it should hopefully wreck havoc on the cancer cells left over. In addition, it requires that I get nightly shots in my stomach which accelerates bone marrow activity. The idea there is to stimulate and grow the cancer cells so they come out of all corners of the marrow, then send in the gnarly "20 times more powerful" chemo to clean everything out and kill it once and for all. Even with all that said, there is a possibility that with this type of aggressive cancer, it still may not push me into remission. More options to come at that point, but chances are good this will do the trick.

I can tell you that the most frustrating part of all of this is being engaged in a fight that you have absolutely no control over. I have the type of personality that I always need to be in control of things, especially if the situation is threatening me in any way, much like this. In this situation, I have to sit back and trust that the medication inside of me is doing its job, fighting the cancer. What I cannot do is lose faith in that, but it's hard not to after two rounds of chemo have come back negative. This is my battle. Continuing to trust the unknown and uncontrollable, sitting back and hoping the chemo is working, when the past two times haven’t. This third round seems to be a better fit for the kind of cancer I have so I need to do my absolute best to KNOW it is going to work.

The good news of this whole ordeal is that my girlfriend Evey took it upon herself to have a pow wow with the doctors and told them that that I need to be able to get out of here for a limited time at some point, risk or not. Given that I have been locked up for close to 7 weeks, they seemed good with it, and today, after being forced to stay in for close to two months, I spent 2 hours outside in the fresh air and sun soaking it up. It was like magic and I can't begin to tell you how badly it was needed.

So as you can see we have had a lot going on over the past 4 days or so. A lot of disappointment, let downs and readjusting of expectations, but also hardening of spirits and understanding that this is going to be a longer, harder road than we originally thought, but one that we know we will get through and one that we know we will look back on one day as a bump in the road.

Thanks for reading everyone and we'll keep you updated as things progress. Take care and be well.

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

The news remains the same today. Platelets continue to rise up while white blood cells stay in the basement. My doctor says there is nothing to worry about so i'm not worrying, but I'd really like to see them start to make a move. The encouraging thing again has been the steady growth in platelets. This in now 6 days in a row that they have grown on their own. That means the bone marrow is working and doing what it is supposed to do, just no movement yet on the whites. Tomorrow brings a new day with hopefully new results. We're all anxiously waiting to see the first sign of growth from the whites so hopefully tomorrow is the day.

I did get some good news about tomorrow though. My doctor has decided to move forward with the bone marrow extraction which will test the round 2 chemotherpy treatment. As much as I enjoy having them dig into my bones to scrape out marrow for more testing, we are very anxious to find out if I am in remission or not so the sooner the better. This test will do that and should hopefully have results ready by Monday...good stuff.

Thanks for reading everyone and take care. More updates to follow.

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Hi everyone, just a quick update on where I am at with my counts, and then I want to ask for your help on an exciting event coming up.

My white cell counts are still in the basement at the unreadable levels, but the good news is my platelets continue to rise. They have gone up every day for the past 6 days which is very promising. Again, this means my bone marrow is working, just hasn't started with the white cells yet. Hopefully any day now we'll see some movement there.

So here is where I could use your help. There is a very cool Leukemia charity walk coming up at Angel Stadium called The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Light The Night Walk. Here is some info about the walk:

The Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's nationwide evening fundraising walk to celebrate and commemorate lives touched by cancer. Funds raised support blood cancer research and patient services. Cancer survivors light the way with illuminated white balloons, supporters carry red balloons and teams walking in memory of a loved one carry a single gold balloon. Dedication banners designed to honor cancer survivors and the memory of those who lost their battles give participants a chance to personalize their efforts and pay tribute to a friend or loved one. Light The Night 2008 promises to be the biggest, brightest and best our counties have ever seen.

When: Saturday, September 20 2008

Where: Angel Stadium – Anaheim, CA

The name of my team is "Team Chrome Dome"...come on, you gotta love that. I think we're up to 15 people who have shaved their heads so it was only fitting. There are two ways to participate, walk or donate:

1. If you walk, click on or cut and paste the following link http://teams.lightthenight.org/ChromeDome, and follow the instructions to become a participant by joining the team. If you become a participant, there is no donation requirement, but they ask that you bring in somewhere in the neighborhood of $200. Now this isn't your own $200.00. This money should come from donations from your family and friends in your name which would fall under team Chrome Dome. This is if you have signed up correctly. If you have people donate money in your name, they would follow the next set of instructions in number 2.

2. To donate to an existing team member or walker, click on or cut and paste the following link: http://www.active.com/donate/ltnSanta , and follow the instructions. You should be able to choose the team member you want and donate from there. Again, the goal is to have every team member bring in $200.00, so any help would be great. Any size donation toward their name will help and the website makes it really easy. If everyone just jumps on the website and donates 5-10 bucks or more, we should have no problem getting there. This is for a great cause and the fact that it is affiliated with the Angels makes it even better.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Van Skogkund at 714-553-0661 or email him at Van_Skoglund@Kingston.com He can walk you through the process which is very easy.

Thanks in advance everyone. I can tell from the outpouring of emotion and support over the past 6 weeks that this group should have no problem stepping up and making this a success. It will be a really fun and rewarding event so if you can make it for the walk, even better. I will be there condition permitting for sure. More updates on my blood levels to follow as I get them.

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Hi everyone, happy Sunday night. I hope you all had a great weekend. Evey and I had a pretty relaxing weekend, visiting with friends and family and watching movies. Just another fun filled weekend here at the hospital. If you can sense the sarcasm in the sentence, you're pretty much right on. Starting to get really antsy in this place. Just gotta remember this is out of my hands and being here is part of the deal. I can usually snap myself out of those moments pretty quickly, but those periods of time seem to be taking longer. Other than the cabin fever, I am feeling really good and healthy so I don't have a whole lot to complain about in the grand scheme of things.

White blood cell counts are still "in the basement", as my doctor would say, but my platelet count is steadily rising which continues to be encouraging. They almost doubled overnight so if I can get that kind of action going on the white cell side of things, I'll be looking good. Tomorrow we will know if there has been any movement, but bottom line is they are still way too low to do anything.

Got some good news today. As far as testing my bone marrow goes, there may be a chance that I could go through another extraction this week. If my white cell count is still rock bottom by the end of the week, they may just go ahead and test for results on round two of the chemo treatment I finished up a few weeks ago. On the other hand, if my white cells show movement and start to go up this week, then they will wait until they start to mature, and then test. Regardless, a test is right around the corner. The best part of this story is they may send me home for five days or so to help me with the cabin fever, whether or not I hit remission from round 2. This will give me some time to get some fresh air, see the light of day, spend time with Floyd and sleep in my own bed. As great as that was to hear, I need to keep from getting too excited because things change around here on a dime. Getting home for a few days would really be great but the prize as of now is to get into remission. That is what I continue to focus on and strive for. We shall see.

That's it for today. Sorry for the long blog but as you can see we have a lot to be excited about. Fingers are crossed that white counts are up tomorrow. If not, we'll just push for the next day. Thanks for reading and I'll update you as things progress.

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Hi everyone, long time no talk. As you could imagine there hasn't been much to report on but I will bring you up to speed on the little things that have occurred. When I last left you, the most important thing we needed to have happen was to have my blood counts start to go up. The idea here is to give my body maximum recovery time from the previous two rounds of chemo, which took a pretty hefty toll on my body. My doctors all week have been telling us that my blood counts are pretty much in the basement, but they expect them to turn by the end of the week. And that is pretty much what my morning meetings with the doctors consist of every day. Doc comes in and says, "Blood counts remain low, but you look good. Keep doing what you're doing and we'll expect to see these numbers turn the corner by the end of the week." -Doc (Huge Red Sox fan)
And I respond by saying, "Thanks Doc, sorry about those Red Sox. It was just a lucky 2 series" -Kurt...as I warm up under my bright red Angels blanket Nathan gave me.

Well today I had a little glimmer of hope. I say little because it is very little. My platelet count and white blood cell counts both went up, but in very small amounts. Normally nothing to get excited about, but the fact that the platelets and the white blood cells both went up COULD be a sign of good things to come. Obviously the next few days will be the judge of that, but if this is the case, I'm on the road to recovery my friends. Woohoo. If not, we wait a little longer, big deal. It just means you will all have to be a little more patient on hearing from me...ha, just kidding...

Some post chemo side effects I've been battling with lately are some random headaches, nausea and um...the expected...um...well, bathroom stuff. You get it. Hoping none of that will affect the turning of the blood counts--that's a good question for the doc tomorrow.

That's about it guys. Halos are kicking some serious A$$ right now. Gotta love the roll we are on and then the two trades that are going to mean everything in the playoffs. Bye bye "It's just Manny being Manny" to the National League and hello Gold Glove big bat Mark Texeireirexierxe...or however you spell his damn name. We are stylin' boys and girls. Swept Boston and now we’re gunnin' for the Yanks. Looking good.

Anyway, enough rambling. Good night everyone and thanks for reading. We'll catch up when I get news on the counts.

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Hi everyone,

there’s still not a whole lot of news to report on, but it has been a few days so I figured I'd let you know how I'm doing. Aside from having to manage through a few headaches here and there, everything has been just fine. I feel really good and actually starting to feel stronger due to my 25 minute morning exercises. It's amazing what a half an hour can do for the body and mind. I actually had some muscle soreness the other day what excited me. Never thought some sore back muscles could lift my spirits like they did, but they did and just motivated me for more. That has been a huge part of keeping my attitude and spirits in the right place.

As far as treatment goes and as I wrote earlier, everything is on hold until my blood counts go up. When they do, which should be in 10 days or so, we'll do another bone marrow test as see how much cancer I have left. From there it's either round 3 of chemo or transplant time.

Team Chrome Dome has really gained some momentum and people who I never thought would touch the precious little hairs on their heads, let alone buzz them off, have stepped up and gone chrome. As surprised as I am, I'm not shocked. I know you guys and can't tell you how much I appreciate the showing of support. You really are an amazing group of people and I don't for a second question how lucky I am to have you as my best friends and family. I am one lucky SOB and I know it, so thank you very much.

That's all I got this time around. As news comes up I will relay to all of you as always. Thanks again for your support by reading my posts and posting messages yourselves. They mean a lot to me and go a long way on my end.

Take care and be well. We'll catch up soon.

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Happy birthday big bro and Paulina. I bet the two of you never thought you would celebrate your birthdays with 10 people crammed in a hospital room in La Jolla. Well, it's all about the people at the party so it was a great time. I hope you enjoyed it. Steak and Guinness on me when I get out of here, maybe a few...of each.

So I wanted to give you all a bit of a deeper dive into the information about the transplant donors. I met again with the doctor today and the news is really good. Apparently I was a perfect 10 out of 10 match with 15 people in the database which was a first. The doc said he had never seen anything like it, so what was initially bad news with my brother's non-match turned into great news with the unrelated match. They now have the luxury of fine tuning the match with three extra pieces of criteria...gender, age and blood type which brought us down to a short list of 3 people. To make the situation even more ideal, these three donors have already gone through the 3 weeks of pre-transplant tests so from a timing perspective, it couldn't be better. Good stuff all around.

So what I need to do now is get into remission. It's that simple. If round 2 puts me there I could be looking at a transplant start timeline of 6 weeks which would be absolutely phenomenal. If I end up needing a 3rd round to get into remission which is a possibility, that timeline could be pushed out by a month or so. But to be quite honest with you, that will be a very easy month knowing I have 3 "perfect" matches waiting for me when I do eventually hit remission. For now focusing on a round 2 success, the donor situation made a round 3 scenario that much more tolerable.

As far as my condition goes, things are good. I'm really enjoying my short but effective morning workouts with the weights and I have had very little all around discomfort. I still get headaches every now and then but those get taken care of pretty quickly with the assortment of remedies they have stocked up down here. The worst part about this whole situation is not being able to read a book outside in the sun breathing in fresh air. That is the number 1 thing I miss most, but I know those days are right around the corner.

Thanks for reading everyone, take care and be well.

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Good evening everyone, so we finally have some news for you. Unfortunately my big bro is a no go on bone marrow matching with me, but all is not lost. It turns out that I have an unusually high number of potential matches. For the last two weeks my doctors and their staff have been going into the unrelated donor database doing some pre-work, and that pre-word has already vetted out a short list of high probability matches. The doctors pretty much said verbatim that I have an abnormally high amount of matches in the database and the outlook is extremely good for a solid match. So Steve, I know how much you wanted that to happen as did I and everyone else, but we are going to be ok. So now it's all about working that list down to a short list of the best possible candidates, locating them and figuring out how it will work logistically. It will mean a short and inconvenient interruption on the donor’s immediate lives, but the hope is that they are ok with that given they are on the list. No timeline yet, but will be trying to nail one down soon.

I know many of you have been asking about how you can donate bone marrow. The answer is you can and it is very easy. We spoke with the nurses here today and they said they are in bad need of blood, platelets and bone marrow. I have been lucky enough to always have it on hand when I need a transfusion or even now with the bone marrow, but there other people out there not so lucky. You can make a difference by going down to your local Red Cross or blood bank and stepping up for all three. It will help someone in my situation…possibly even save their life.

As far as my current condition goes, I am feeling great, waiting for my blood level to recuperate back to normal. Once that happens, they will test my bone marrow and see if I have gone into remission. In other words, they won’t test me until my counts go up, unlike the first time, where they tested me after 7 days post chemo. That is why this time is may take up to 3 weeks to determine if I have gone into remission.

Bottom line is we are happy with the news over the past couple of days even though I wasn’t able to match with Steve. We are very optimistic about the donor situation and we’re in wait and see mode for round 2 results, but we feel good about them as well. Thanks again for reading and for your support.

P.S. I’d like to throw out a special thank you to team chrome dome…Steve, Scott, Alex, Van, Jeff and a commitment from Kevin. Should be quite a scene when we all get out somewhere together. Thanks guys, brings a tear to my eye.

Sunday, July 19th, 2008

Red Sox, Schmed Sox. Nice sweep Halos!

Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am feeling much better since my last posting. That was luckily a short lived period of hell which ended on Saturday. To be honest with you it makes me feel good that the chemo hit me harder this time. It makes me believe that the chemo hit the cancer that much harder which is what needs to happen. I'd be happy to take the pain on my end if it means the same amount of pain is getting inflicted on the cancer. Bright side right?

So again, not a whole lot of news to report on. Should know about the big brother match in a few days so look lout for that. Other than that, had a very good weekend. Angels swept the Sox, visited with lots of friends and family and got my appetite back. All in all a great few days.

Thanks for reading guys and have a great Monday.

By the way, still laughing about your message Estey. That is one for the ages my friend...

Friday, July 18th, 2008

So I just got done reading the posting from last night and all I have to say is WOW. Very well done indeed. They say that laughter is key to a speedy recovery...I think I got my fair share for the day. If that were the case I'd be on my way home right now to give Floyd a big hug and a kiss, but unfortunately that ain't how it works so here I sit. Please keep the posting coming. It really is the only way I can stay connected to most of you, so don't be shy to say hi every now and then.

Back to business, which has been light lately. As I said there won’t be much news until next week when we finally get to hear if my big bro is a match. All fingers, toes, and everything else your minds could imagine are crossed on that one but if it isn't a match it's not the end of the world. What I learned today is that apparently the likelihood of me matching with someone unrelated is pretty high due to the fact that I'm a white male. I guess it's based on simple demographics so if I were born in let's say, Zimbabwe, I'd have a much more difficult time finding a donor. Anyway, this process is going to take some time regardless, so let's just hope big bro and I are all lined up. I'm feeling pretty good about it myself.

On the cancer side, I must say I've had a pretty rough couple of days. The chemo finally sank it's teeth into me and took me down for the count. I'll spare you the details but it's pretty safe to say that round 2 didn’t let me off that easy. Still not enough to dampen my spirits, but enough to put me through hell for about 36 hours. As of now I'm feeling great and looking at it in my rear view mirror. What I will take from that is the chemo is going to town hard on those bastard little cancer cells which is what I need, so with the bad comes the good.

I'd like to say a few special thank you's to the folks who have donated to the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. Doug Anderson, Aunt Cherrie, Lauren, Kevin and Eryn. Money well utilized so thank you.

That's it for today everyone. So I guess just keep on truckin'.

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Hi everyone, I wish I could tell you I have a bunch of news, but the fact of the matter is I don't, and probably won't for another week or so when we hear about the bone marrow match. Right now I am in a bit of a waiting period. For the next couple of weeks, the doctors are going to let the chemo work it's magic while also letting my blood cell counts gradually climb back up to acceptable levels. At the end of this 2 to 3 week waiting period, they will test my marrow again and see how much cancer is left. At that point we'll have a much clearer picture of next steps and potential future treatments.

I officially started my new exercise program today, which consisted of doing push ups and various dumb bell weight exercises for a total of 10 minutes. Thanks for bringing down the weights pops. It is pretty amazing how quickly you can lose strength and endurance when you're enclosed in a small room for a month. My only hope is that 10 minutes turns into 12 then 15, then 30, then who knows...I write a book about hospital fitness and make a million. Oh wait, I'm pretty sure that book already exists. Damn it, late again. Bottom line is it felt really good to actually feel my heart pumping blood again so I'll be looking forward to keeping that going. Besides, gives me something else to do to pass the time.

On a final note, congratulations to Eric and Lisa on the birth of their beautiful (I saw pictures) baby girl, Tatum "Tate" Marie Hunzeker today. I am so happy for you both.

That's it guys, that's all I got. Thanks for reading, writing and staying up on everything. We'll catch up tomorrow.

P.S. Get some sleep Mrs. O

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

So go ahead and chalk up another round of chemo. Finished my last bag of round two on Monday night with again, minimal side effects. I got hit much harder this time by fatigue, but not much of anything else. I'll take having to nap a couple of times a day over the alternative any day. So again, I feel pretty fortunate to have made it through another barrage of chemo without having to deal with all of the negative effects that usually go along with it.

As you probably read from my last blog, my hair is completely gone...I'm bald... and it's a trip. There is no question I look like a mutant, but the benefits totally outweigh the negatives. Upkeep alone is reason enough to shave your head. No more bed head which has come in real handy with all of my fatigue. I just pop out of bed and I'm good to go. Throw some water on my face and I'm a new man. For those of you on the fence, I highly recommend it...that is if you can get past the fact that you look like a Martian. If I can get past that, so can you. In all seriousness, it still is a bit shocking when I see my bald noggin, but I am quickly getting used to it so it should be nothing in no time.

As far as tests and results go, we are still about a week away from finding out if my brother Steve is a bone marrow match. We are all waiting very patiently for that one. In the meantime, they already have everything they need from me, so they are going through the non-family donor database now looking for possible matches so they have options beyond Steve just in case we may need to go down that path.

I should get results in the next 2-3 weeks from the chemo round I just went through. They are going to wait a little bit longer on this one and let the chemo do it’s work. The end result here is to get into remission, so that is what we will be focusing on.

I am lucky enough to get to go through yet another spinal tap tomorrow. They want to take a look at the amount of pressure my spinal fluid could be putting on my spinal chord. I thought I was the lucky one to have two of these things done. Just imagine my surprise when they told me I get to have yet another. I tell you, there is nothing like having a 4 inch needle shoved into your spine…3 times. Wow, I really am lucky.

So that’s about it everyone, not much else to report on. Thanks for reading and writing. We'll catch up tomorrow.

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

Three words for tonight's message...Bald is Beautiful! Say hello to the latest member of the Kojak fan club.

That's it for the weekend everyone. Thanks again for all of your messages, we appreciate and enjoy reading every one of them, so please don't think they fall on blind eyes because they do not. Take care and good night...And good morning to our friends in Germany, Croatia and the Philippines. We'll see you soon.

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

Good evening everyone. So today is my third day of chemo in round number 2 and all is going well. I feel great and things are running smoothly. Aside from a little fatigue, I feel just as good as I did pre-chemo. This round of treatment will be over before I know it, just like the first round. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depends on the way you look at it I guess, that is about all I have to share. Things slow down over the weekend so you can expect the same amount of news tomorrow as you have read here today.

One thing I would like to do is use this opportunity to congratulate one of my best friends in the world, Jeff Harden on his marriage today to his beautiful new wife Julie. Not sure how you could have made this guy any better Julie, but today you did. Evey and I wish we were there to properly congratulate you both in person, but I know you could feel us there in spirit. Congratulations guys, we love you both!

Good night everyone and thanks for reading. Unless there is news coming in tomorrow, you'll hear back from us on Monday. Take care and be well.

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Hi everyone, so not such good news to report on tonight if you're an Angel fan...I'll just leave it at that.

Not so much Leukemia news to report on tonight. It was a very quiet day as far as testing and results go which was actually quite nice. The good news is that we finally got to meet my doctor, Dr. Curtain today which went really well. What instantly struck me was the fact that he took the time to answer all of our questions until he was confident we had the answers we were looking for. He also spoke on our level which has been something difficult to come by with the high level doctors since we got here. These are the things we heard about this guy and that's why we chose him without even meeting him. It's good to see the right choice was made.

He did confirm that the form of cancer I am dealing with is aggressive so I will have a fight on my hands. I knew that going in so this is nothing new to me. I'm feeling really good about having Dr. Curtain in my corner, so today only made me feel better than I already do.

That it's for tonight everyone. Take care and thanks for reading, we'll catch up tomorrow.

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Hi everyone. Wow, what an Angel game for those of you who saw it. I’m starting to wonder if watching those is good for my health.

So I had a conversation today with the guy who runs the research department here for the entire Leukemia center. He actually signed off on my doctor's PHD so he know's his stuff for sure. Anyway, I asked him for a frank assessment of the results I got last night. He said it would just about be statistically impossible for me to get through all of this without having to go through two rounds of chemo. That certainly put my mind at ease a bit and should do the same for you.

Other news today was the results from the spinal tap. Results came back negative which means they showed no sign of cancer in my spinal fluid. They also ran tests to see if there was any cancer cells in my blood which also turned up negative. The doctors were very happy about those results which means we too were happy. It is a really good sign the chemo has been actively going after the cancer. It didn't quite hit the bone marrow as hard as we wanted, but it was good to hear today that that is the norm rather than the exception. With that said, there is still a chance round 2 won't even get the bone marrow cancer cells down to acceptable levels, only time and results will tell.

I'd like to throw out a special thank you to Kelly Dyer and Bill McGowen for donating to the Childrens Pediatric Cancer Society in my name. Any donation amount will do and I assure you it is going to a good cause. I certainly appreciate it, but more importantly, the kids it is helping appreciate it much more. For more information, please refer to the link on this site.

So the roller coaster ride continues and all we can do is go with it and hold on tight. Day 2 of chemo is going very well and I'm sure it will be over before I know it. That's it for tonight. Thanks for reading and hopefully we'll have more news for you tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Hi everyone, the spinal tap didn't happen last night so they actually got it done this afternoon. Evey was lucky enough to walk in the room just as the needle was going into my spine...lucky her huh? I asked her to take a quick photo but she wanted nothing to do with it. Again, the purpose of the spinal tap is to see if there is any sign of infection, bacteria, or cancer in my spine. Just by eyeballing the fluid, the doctor said it looked good in terms of infection since the fluid was clear and not cloudy. We should hopefully have definitive results by Friday or Saturday.

We did get results from the bone marrow test that was done on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I will have to go through another round of chemo to bring the cancer cells down to a level that makes the doctors comfortable. It appears the cancer is a lot more aggressive than they originally suspected. With that said, round two was kicked off this evening. The treatment is called "5 + 2" which consists of the same medication as the first round, only this one is 5 days instead of the original 7.

Obviously not the news we would have liked to report on, but it is not realistic to think I am going to skate through this without a scratch. We can consider this scratch number 1 with more to come. I'm still feeling great and know things could be a hell of a lot worse so as far as I'm concerned, this hasn't changed a thing aside from what will be pumping through my body for the next 5 days.

Thanks for reading everyone and take care.

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Sorry we didn’t post anything yesterday but there was nothing new to report on so we figured why waste your time. Today was a different story as we got a lot done. As I sit here waiting for them to come in and do a second spinal tap, I figured this is as good a time as any to get you all updated.

My brother Steve came down this morning so we took advantage of the fact that he was here to test for a bone marrow match. Everything went well and the test was done. We unfortunately will not know the results of that test for a couple of weeks, but it certainly feels good to have it done. Apparently there at 10 elements that need to match in order for them to call it a perfect match. Our fingers are crossed that it is in fact a perfect match, but if it turns out it’s not, we should have other options ready to go by then. While we wait for the results of Steve's test, they will already be looking for other perfect matches in their database of donors.

I also underwent my third bone marrow extraction today which was just as fun and exciting as the first two. My Mom got to witness this one so that was a nice thing to share with her…ha. This is the test that will tell us how effective the chemo was against the cancer cells during the first round of treatment. The results of this test could be back as soon as tomorrow or possibly Thursday. If things go very well and there is little to no cancer left in my marrow, they will let my body recover and wait for the transplant. If there is still more cancer than the doctors are comfortable with, they will put me through another round of chemo which will last probably 5 days. The good news is that I can expect the same side effects for all future chemo treatments as I experienced during the induction round, which was pretty much none.

As far as the spinal tap this evening goes, the purpose is so they can check and make sure there are no cancer cells in my spinal fluid, which is really an extension of the bone marrow test I went through today. It basically covers things from all angles. Results from this test should be back tomorrow or Thursday as well.

So as you can see, it has been a busy day which isn’t over yet, and not only for me but for my brother as well. I’m feeling good about the results, but anything could happen with the results. Bottom line is whatever we need to do we’ll do, and we’ll do it at 110%.

Thanks for reading everyone and results to follow soon. Take care!