On Saturday, July 15th, he had his first round of high dose chemo. I spoke with him on the Monday afterword, and he sounded very tired...found out later that week, that he was very sick from this treatment, and eventually had to go in twice for blood transfusions. He is wearing a hepa filter mask at all times, so as not to catch any germs. Please keep those prayers coming...
July 26th: Went in for more blood and platlets...his white count is finally starting to go up.
July 27th: He goes in to Stanford today to have his stem cells harvested...which they will freeze and use for his bone marrow transplant. This could take a couple of days...
July 28th: Went to Stanford and had apheresis (Apheresis is the process of taking blood out, and spinning it to separate the types of cells,They take the white blood cells, and return the others to the patient.) Took longer than we thought it would, had to go back on Saturday, and still need to go back on Monday for more apheresis. In the meantime, he needed to go get 2 more units of blood, with a total of 9 for the week..On Wednsday, they will go back to Stanford and talk to Dr. Blume to find out what chemo's he needs to have before the transplant...
August 2nd: Went to Stanford to discuss the chemo options, and found out he will need 2 rounds of a new (to him) chemo called MINE, which is supposed to be great at treating resistant lymphoma. He will start the treatments next week, it is given over 3 days, the first day is 5-6 hours long, and the next two are 4 hours long. The treatments are 21 days apart, and after the second round he will be restaged with another CT scan and bone marrow biopsy....if all looks good (Please God!) he will have the transplant.
Aug. 10th: Finished round 1 of the chemo...feeling a little shaky, but not too bad. He will start getting the neupogen shots tomorrow (to help bring up his white cell counts). The next round of chemo is Aug. 28, 29, and 30th. And after that he will be retested and if everything goes well, he will get the transplant! :)
Aug.30th: Had his final chemo treatment. Has to wait until Sept. 16th, and will be restaged then, to see if he is able to have the transplant....keep on praying please! :)
Sept. 18th: Had his tests done last week, and found out the results yesterday...there are NO abnormal cells found!! Which means that he is going to have the transplant on Tuesday, Sept. 19th. We are all thrilled! Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes! Please keep praying, as he has a long road ahead of him...but we feel he is going to come through this with flying colors! :)
Sept. 19th: Found out today that his doctors want him to wait the full 28 days since his last chemo treatment, which means he will start the transplant on friday, Sept. 22nd. Only a few more days to wait! :)
Sept: 22nd: Todays the day!! I spoke with Mark last night, and he was in a good mood, not exactly looking forward to all of this, but....He will be in the hospital for 8 days, and then will move to an apartment a block away from the hospital for 5-6 weeks. He will need 24/7 care, and also need someone to take him back and forth to the hospital, as he needs to be there 4-5 hours each day.
I will update this as soon as I hear any more...keep those prayers coming! :)
Oct 1st: It was a long week for Mark, the "industrial strength" (his term *s*) chemo was very hard on him, and his spirits were down for a couple of days, but he has bounced back and is ready to begin this next part of his journey into beating this cancer. His wife, Sussie, is staying with him at the apartment for the first 2-3 weeks, and then will have friends and family to help out.
Oct 5th: Thought he would be out of the hospital by now, but he developed an infection in his throat from the chemo, so he is now on antibiotics, he is spiking fevers, and can't eat, so is being fed through a tube in his stomache. They also started giving him Neupogen shots to help get the stem cells to create white blood cells.
Oct. 7th: This is day +9, and the staff at the hospital says it can take anywhere between 9-12 days before he starts to make white blood cells...he took 2 walks around the "ward", but gets easily tired out...
Oct. 9th: His white cell count is now up to 1400!! Woohoo! They also discontinued 2 of the drugs he was getting and tomorrow will discontinue several more. Which will give his large intestine a chance to heal, and he will be able to "enjoy hospital food once again" lol...
Oct. 13th: Got released from the hospital late friday, and moved to the apartment. Still has to go in to the hospital every day for 4-5 hours, for blood work, and potassium infusions.
Oct. 16th: He had an overnight infusion of liquids, which they should be discontinuing because he is getting enough fluids on his own now that his throat is better, but they are concerned with his gall bladder not funtioning the way it should be. There is a sludgey buildup due to his not eating for so long, and they are thinking of taking it out. He has also lost his short term memory due to all the chemo, but we think this is fairly common, and hope it returns soon.
Oct. 18th: Went in for blood work and chest x-ray, the blood work looks pretty good! The jaundice is almost gone, and he might be able to get his catheter out on friday, yay! He will see his regular bone marrow transplant doctor on Monday, and when his blood counts are back to normal, will be able to go home...probably around 2-4 weeks from now :)
Oct. 20th: Got to go home for a weekend visit, he was very happy to be with his family again, and can't wait to make it permanent! :)
Oct. 28th: Our sister, Michele, arrived on thursday, to help out. Mark got his catheter removed, yay! He also got to go home for another weekend visit! He has to go back to Stanford on Monday for an appointment at the clinic. He says he is feeling great, and can start eating regular food now. He thanks everyone for their prayers and support. :)
Nov. 10th: Had a CT scan on Monday, and the results looked good! It showed a reduction of some and elimination of other Lymph nodes...he can now participate in the Rituxan study. This is a fairly new drug, which has monoclonal antibodies in it, which will attach to any cancer cells (if there are any left) and Marks immune system will kill them. The treatment is one day a week for 4 weeks, and he will have it again in 6 months...
Dec. 29th: Mark had to have his gallbladder taken out..it was causing him quite alot of pain. He is feeling better now that it is out, and he can start eating again :)
Jan. 18th, 2001 Mark had a bone marrow biopsy last wed. and finally got the results back this morning...it showed NO signs of Lymphoma!! YAYYY!! We are all so happy :)
He still has one more round of the Rituxan, and then he should be finished with everything..he still tires easily, but hopefully after hearing this good news, it will give him the boost he needs :)
Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts throughout these past months...he couldn't have done it without you!!
