My journey though Bone Marrow Transplant!

Ok so I know I haven't posted anything for a long time because I didn't have much to say until now! So I am admitted to the Huntsman Cancer Center in Salt Lake City Ut. I am under going treatment for aplastic anemia! This treatment is called a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT). Most people don't have a full understanding of what that means. First thing I need to start my journey is a donor. So the chance of having a sibling match is 1 in 5 and I am lucky enough to have one! My brother Phillip has been willing and ready to do that for me! Next thing that has to happen is I have to be in the hospital for an extended period of time. For the first week I will have intense chemotherapy to kill my bone marrow and immune system. Then the second week I will get the actual transplant. Which for me is just an infusion though a central line that has been placed. For Phillip it means surgery to remove his bone marrow! OUCH! He is awesome because he is willing to go through so much pain for me. So after the transplant happens then we just wait to see if it worked. For at least the first three weeks that will be spent in the hospital. Then the last 6-8 weeks I will be staying at my uncle Kens house in Sandy Ut. So I am at the hosptial and have started the chemo! My body is handling it well I have had some dizziness and nausiousness. But not too bad considering how sick I could be. I am really thankful for everyone. It is a long scary journey a head but I have the support of so many and I will make it through

August 25th

It has been a busy month!!! Things have been crazy with vinyl work and getting ready for the kids to go to school. Rylee is going to kindergarden! I can't believe she is old enough for that big step. Things with my health have been pretty good! I went to the doctor today and it appears like my blood counts are slowly coming up. It is really nice to see things going up! The doctor says we will be cautiously opptimistic about the better counts. A lot has happened in the last month that has made me think. I ran into a friend from high school the other day that recently had his second kidney transplant! He is very positive and happy. He is healthy now and things are good for him. It made me think that maybe my situation isn't soo bad. I need to keep a positive attitude if things are going to keep going good. I also need to keep my faith in heavenly father growing because I know that he is there for me and I need to learn to turn to him and trust in his love! We all have our trials and my health issues are mine and I need to thankful that it is not worse! The doctors are positive that I can beat this so I need to be too. I need to be thankful for the wonderful family and friends that are always there for me and not take them granted! I love you all and thank you again!

August 11th

I am sorry to leave everyone hanging. My first day of treatment was really rough but we went into the next three days with a plan and it worked. The days were long and I felt horrible but no major reactions. Since treatment I feel like things have been running in fast forward. I can't believe it has been a whole month since treatment week! I have had very few reactions to the medicine that I am still on. I am so thankful that this time around has been easier. I had a small amount of serum sickness. That is when you have extreme joint pain, horrible rashes, and fevers. I think I had two or three really bad days! Last time I was a lot worse with the serum sickness in fact it landed me in the ER. I haven't had to visit the ER at all this time around I am very blessed! I have only had two platelet transfusions and one blood transfusion. I go back to the doctor in the morning and if things are stable or better they will take my PICC line out!!! I am really praying that it happens. I really want to swim with my kids more before school is out. I know that I have my challenges and some days just getting out of bed is hard. But, I also know people who are dealing with worse than me so I am trying to stay positive and be thankful things are not worse. I have still been able to do things with my kids this summer and enjoy time together as a family! I am thankful for a wonderful husband and an amazing mom who have been here with me everyday to get me thru!

Day one of treatment July 11

So the treatment started today and it turned out to be very long unsuccessful day! I spent over five hours at the clinic! Once the medicine finally started I had a reaction about 8 minutes after it hit my body! I got really hot and clammy and very nauseous. They stopped the medicine almost immediately I cooled down and started to feel better. They decided to give me more benadryl and another drug to help the side effects stay minimal. I need to go to the bathroom and I got up to go and my mom was helping me. We were trying to get all the machinery away from the bathroom door and I passed out luckily my mom was close and nurse came fast and helped me to the ground. I woke up on the floor super disoriented and freaked out! They got me back in bed and got everything restarted we just went slow at first to see what I could tolerate once they got up to normal speed I got really nauseous and I threw up and got really shaky and cold! At that point the doctor decided to stop for the day and start again tomorrow! Let's hope my body can tolerate it better!
Again thank you for the love and support!

Well things have been uneventful as far as my health goes! The only thing that has happened since my last post is that I had my galbladder taken out. It was a very easy experience and I have been feeling pretty good without it! The future has a lot in store. My doctors and I have decided to try the drug treatment again. It must have worked a little because my bone marrow has been working, just not as much as it should be!!! So in nine days I will start the treatment again. This time we will try it in combination with a drug called tacrolimus it is a lot like the cyclosporine but hopefully my body will tolerate it better! As long as I don't have any seizures I will be able to stay on it longer and hopefully my bone marrow will respond to it! We are being optimistic that it will work and things will improve so I don't have to have a transplant!! It will be a rough couple of weeks I just hope I can deal with all the side effects and the doctors and I can work together to get through the rough weeks ahead! Thank you everyone for your continued support and love!!!

No new news!

I just wanted to let everyone know I am doing good! I haven't had any news to post so I haven't! I talked to the Salt Lake hospital today and they are going to discuss doing the drug treatment again to see if it will work and to see if my body can handle the drugs! I go see my doctor here on Wednesday. He hopefully will have more info for me the Salt Lake doctors are going to talk with him and come up with a plan so we shall see!! Thank you again for the thoughts and Prayers! You will never know how much it means to me!!

Long time!!

I haven't had much to post lately because the doctors pulled me off of all of my medications! They aren't sure what caused the seizures so they don't want to have anymore! The last two weeks I have been to the doctor twice, last week and then again today. Last week my platelets were 11,000 and then this week they are up to 18,000! Which as far as I am concerned is a good sign! I haven't had to have any type of transfusions for three weeks! It has been really nice to feel better plus not be spending so much time at the doctor! I still have to be careful not to catch any sickness and I have to watch my energy levels and be careful not to do too much! But things are looking up! I go see some bone marrow specialists on Friday in Salt Lake City, and we are hoping they can give us some options of were to go from here! After that appointment I will update the blog about how things went! I am hoping and praying things go well and that they are happy with the progress. Thank you so much to everyone for all the love and support and especially the prayers! I love you all!