It was decided on Saturday, June 29, that Jim would be taken to UofM, by ambulance, that day. He arrived in the afternoon and was made comfortable. His family went with him and they are going to be with him throughout this entire experience!
Jim awoke around 7:00am after a somewhat restless night. His pain comes and goes in waves. At times it is extremely painful and then it seems to quiet down. Jim was sent his breakfast and ate a little. His dad, Jim Sr., spent the night with him and picked off of his tray. They were told that Dr. Kaminski, a highly respected physician in the treatment of Lymphoma, would be coming in to see Jim. He arrived appx. 10:30am and introduced himself to Jim and his dad. He immediately stated no chemo treatment would be given today because he is meeting with his team in the morning and they would go thru Jim's case with a fine tooth comb and then decide on their treatment schedule. He stated he would increase Jim's steroids, which in turn will help to destroy some of the cancer cells.
Dr. Erba would also be on Jim's case and work along with Dr. Kaminski. They would probably be using 4 different chemos to treat this new relapse. Also, Jim will have to undergo tests to see if he is eligible for bone marrow transplant. Jim will continue to receive P.T. He also ordered a chest x-ray to be done today. Jim had a nice day with all of his family. They were there for support because they love him and want him to fight.
We ask all of you to keep on praying and asking for his complete recovery. "Ask and you shall receive", Jesus said!
Monday. July 1, 2002
Overnight Jim was moved into a new and larger room. He is now in 8B #8138. If you would like to send him a card, or just a quick note, here is his address:
Dr. Jim Langeveld
c/o University of Michigan Hospital
8B #8138
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0112
Jim needs lots of encouragement, please keep those cards coming!
Jim and his dad awoke around 7:00am. They had a pretty restful night, only getting up once or twice. Around 9:30am, Dr. Olson from pain control entered Jim's room and discussed trying to get him on more oral pain meds rather than IV drip. The idea is to try and cut the narcotic drugs back. Jim thought that might be a good idea and they are going to try and manipulate these drugs. The Drs. left and Jim and his dad, along with Debbie and his mom and sister spent a good afternoon talking about how great Jim was doing and how successful this transplant will be! Jim took a shower and had a few friends stop by to see him. Around 4:00pm, a Dr. Koenig stops and talks to Debbie and Jim's sister, Mary about Jim and the fact that the team is working on his case even though they have not been in to see him today. They are going to give him a treatment that wiill tem-porarily slow the cancer down. It is not chemo, that probably will not begin for a few days, because they are being very cautious before that decision is made. They are studying the bone marrow slide that was done last week and that is helping them also. He stated that Jim probably will be a candidate for bone marrow transplant. Jim and his family had a pleasant evening. Around 10:30pm they decided to leave so Jim and Kevin, his brother-in-law, could turn in. Kevin decided to stay to give Jim's dad a rest. He had been staying with Jim since last week, helping him thru the night. However, Jim and Kevin were in for a very trying evening. Jim was scheduled for surgery the next day, to have a catheter put into his chest, and his platelets were low. Therefore, he received transfusions of platelets all night long. No sleep!
Tuesday, July 2, 2002
At 6:30am, Jim's parents arrived to find him and Kevin exhausted. They told them what happened and of course, they were tired. Jim was suppose to go down at 7:15am, not so. By 8:30am, they were beginning to wonder when he was going to surgery. Finally, at 9:20am the call came and Jim left 15 minutes later accompanied by his parents. Debbie did not come because Tyler came down with a fever, during the night. When it rains it pours!
The surgery took appx. 1 hr. Jim returned to his room looking good and with very little pain. Thank you Lord! Jim was hungry and by time everything settled down, it was lunch.
Debbie was able to come to Jim's room around 11:00am, thanks to her wonderful mom who stayed back with Tyler. They ordered lunch and talked, wondering when the main man would be in with the news of treatment. Dr. Janus, a very nice intern on Jim's case, came into the room and asked Jim about his testing on his heart. In order to go through bone marrow, you have to be in pretty good shape. So they test. She said she would ck. into his test, and try to get him going that day. She also said that Dr. Erba, the main man, would definitely be in sometime today. That was good news. Around 1:00pm, PT came in and ckd how Jim was doing. She brought a new walker, it enables Jim to get more leverage from his arms. It goes right up to his arms and he can put his weight on it. Jim thought it was quite a bit better than the small one. She took him through a few exercises and left. Within an hour in comes OT. She evaluated Jim's hands and arms and said she would be in to start him on therapy. Through out the day his family was in and out of his room, never leaving him alone. Jim knows they are there for the run too!
Around 2:30pm, they were told Dr. Erba was coming. Appx. 20 minutes later, there he was introducing himself to all of Jim's family present. He began to ask Jim questions about his case, and seemed to have done his homework. He stated that usually the therapy used to combat this relapse involves chemo agents that can cause nerve damage. With Jim's reacting the way he has from his previous treatments, they have to be extremely careful. Therefore, they will not be treating with 4 agents, but just one, Ara-C. Studies show it has done a pretty good job of getting rid of this cancer. Jim will be hit hard. They have to be aggressive!