What a day Tuesday was! Mom and I started our day at 5:15am…. With Nupogen injections and gulping coffee, since I couldn’t have anything to do drink after 5:30am, and were sitting in the waiting room by 7:30am. Anticipation of something scary is sometimes worse than the actual event, and my fear and anticipation was getting worse as we sat there, until 8:00am, when they finally called my name. After getting into those ever fashionable hospital gowns, I laid on the bed and waited for mom to be allowed to come back. At least they let me keep my K.A.S.T. T-shirt on underneath the hospital gown… at least that was…

IT’S DONE! I went into the Hospital at 7:30am and Kerrie received her tranfusion just before 5:00pm! Mom, Dad, Ron and I sang happy birthday to her, as the transfusion started, and the transplant team gave her a birthday card 🙂 Forgive me for not writing more. It’s been a long day and I have little energy right now. Will try to write more details tomorrow. Kerrie is sleeping and I am resting and the transpant is over…. but Kerrie’s biggest job is just beginning. Fight Kerrie… you took round one… keep fighting Jenn

Not a bad day… and the chemo is OVER! Kerrie made it through this round with little incident and was even able to tolerate the burning mouth a lot better. Of course, she froze her mouth with popsicles and water the minute the chemo started but hey.. whatever works. As we watched the last few drips come out of that bottle, and into the IV, she just smiled and said, “It’s done… and it better be forever!” She was actually able to eat a good amount of food today, with a lot of prodding from Ted ( thanks Ted!) and seemed in good spirits. Much better than yesterday. She was…

It’s been a really rough day. As for me… the bone pain is managable, but the chest pain ( in my sternum) is bad. Nothing a little tylenol 3 can’t handle though..  For Kerrie… it’s been miserable. The antibiotic they have her on has her all red and blotchy again, but we knew this would happen. It’s a common side effect of Vancomiacin ( can’t spell it… sorry) and is called “Red Man’s Syndrome”.  Her face is all swollen and puffy and she’s itching all over again… but even that was expected. They told us she should expect mouth sores with the type of chemo they started today, and that her mouth would hurt,…

It’s been a long night. Kerrie’s temp kept rising… 100 at 10:30pm, 101.1 at 11:00pm… 102.3 at 2:00am I called Mom, around 10:30pm, to let her know what was going on and that they were doing chest x-rays and another blood culture. The blood culture, from a few days ago, showed positive for SOMETHING in Kerrie’s blood, but I’m not exactly sure what that means. Because of the results of the previous blood culture, they had started her on antiobitics yesterday, but her temperature was still rising. I let the nurse know I needed the results of the x-rays as soon as they had them, since our Mom was worrying…

5:00am… wide awake, staring at the ceiling… knowing the needles will be coming soon. I can hear mom moving around in the house, getting ready for work. Maybe she’ll forget…( she can’t and I can’t either)… Maybe I’ll fall back asleep and when I wake she’ll tell me she did it already and I slept through the whole thing. Maybe I’m still sleeping and I’ll wake to find the last three months have all been a horrible dream. I’m trying to control my breathing, using relaxation and yoga techniques, but it’s not working. My heart is pounding, my breathing is too heavy and I have to relax. 6:00am… I can…

We’ve decided Kerrie is faking the whole nausea bit just so she can get back rubs! Dr. Jana had said Kerrie wouldn’t feel nausea with this particular chemo, but she’s been sick every day. She didn’t really have nausea with the last two rounds of chemo, and she should have, so she’s either doing things a little backwards… or she’s faking the whole thing so Mom and I will spend hours at a time rubbing her head and rubbing her back. We’re both a couple of suckers for her sad eye looks and those pleading, pouting lips. She’ll start a different kind of chemo, on Saturday, so we hope that…

Hello Everyone, Well, if you are checking the website you already know that Kerrie is back at HFH. today is day -7. countdown to day 0…….next Tuesday is transplant day. Had an eventful week while she was home, lots of ups and downs and trips to HF. biopsies, lumbar punctures, infusion catheter insertions, blood tests, etc. between the rash at the beginning of her home visit, ending with the spinal headache at the end, there was not much time for fun and games…….but we managed a walk at a park, donuts from the cider mill and a movie. so all was not lost. Chemo started tonight…..we walked our 5 laps,…

I have been meaning to put a post on, for a few days, but it suddenly got very busy at home. Kerrie had several family members visit, on Saturday and Sunday, and she just tried to relax as much as possible before she had to go back to the hospital on Monday. I thought I was ready for her to go back, so we could get all of this over and done with, but as she was getting into the car it took everything I had to fight back the tears and I had a lump in my throat the entire drive down there. Her head still hurt pretty bad,…

I’m currently sitting in the Deli, at Henry Ford, enjoying a Caramel Macchiato and a cup of Potato Soup.. while my beautiful sister is downstairs undergoing her MRI.  Mom stayed home to get a few things done, go to the grocery store, etc. I’m glad I was here to give her a little time off and allow her to get a few things done. I may not be able to do much for either one of them right now, but at least there are a few little things I can do. Kerrie was a little scared about the MRI, but I’ve been through these a lot, and was able to…